Rating:
Genre:
Blues
Release Date: 03/22/2005
Ray Norcia is known as a
blues harmonica ace, but when all is said and done, his greatest strength may well be his voice, and when he sings at his best, he brings a touch of
country and a little bit of
jazz swing to the
blues.
Hands Across the Table, his third release on
David Earl's
Severn Records, and the first to feature new guitarist
Paul Size, doesn't push for too much. There's plenty of harp soloing here, naturally, and things are helped out immensely by the presence of
the Providence Horns on several tracks, which adds a solid punch to the rhythm section, but things don't really rise much above journeyman
blues until halfway through the album when
Norcia decides to let in the
country R&B on the
Fats Domino-styled reworking of
Frankie Laine's
"That's My Desire." A case could be made that
Norcia is the
Charlie Rich of
East Coast blues, and on
"I Wanna Marry You Girl" his vocal strikes close to the spot where
country and the
blues still have a shared agenda. His voice even sounds a little bit like the great
Jack Teagarden on the two best tracks here, the jazzy
"River Stay 'Way from My Door" and the magnificent
"The Last Blues Song," which features the subtle and perfectly nuanced phrasing of a master vocalist. No one is suggesting that
Norcia toss away his harps -- his driving (but not overdriven) tone on harmonica is always a plus -- but this man can sing, and not just the
blues.
~Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
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