Jeremy Spencer, legendary British Blues slide guitarist and original member of Fleetwood Mac announces his new album “Coventry Blue”. If you consider yourself a Blues aficionado and recognize its elemental role in the evolution of Rock history, then you are aware of Jeremy Spencer as one of the premier guitarists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was Spencer's "My Heart Beat Like A Hammer" that gave Fleetwood Mac’s debut such an auspicious start and pitched a slide in the band's very core. Uncannily, the pint sized Spencer embodied Elmore James’ riffs and vocals to obsession. He possessed an equal fervor and absolute command of quintessential primordial rock and roll personifying personal hero Buddy Holly and his ilk spot on. In 2012 came a limited edition, double vinyl album for International Record Store Day emblematically entitled: “Bend In The Road”. It was a result of a suggestion via a valued friend to team up with a young band of Fleetwood enthusiasts.
The musical chemistry was instant and inspiring. So much so that 32 diverse tracks were laid down creating an album of intimate, handmade joys that moves confidently from blues to Americana to rootsy pop. The Elmore and Buddy influences and impeccable blues and rock rendering remain intact and vibrant, but so too a new collaborative nature, selflessly trad trading guitar licks and support with Brett Lucas (the young Detroit guitarist and Mac fan who co-produced and whose band augment the proceedings). “Bend in the Road” and now “Coventry Blue” are a career culmination of technique meets soul.
Transcendent with escalating emotive sequences of spiritually driven and invested songs, but without sounding dated – instead intoxicatingly assured and relaxed, out of the blue resonant, growing from affection to cherish with subsequent plays. Jeremy retains his verve, passion and devotion to the blues, but now he brings a cultivated maturity, assured conviction and compositional purpose that are truly sublime. His songs come via his inti mate journey from the spiritual core of his heart and connect profoundly with listeners.In “Coventry Blue”, Jeremy Spencer displays his many facets with a wider evolved guitar pallet as displayed on “Bend in the Road”.
The album’s haunting melodies and exquisite guitar harmonies display Spencer’s expansive range of influences from Django Reinhardt to Marty Robbins to Mark Knopfler, fingering them effortlessly and seamlessly incorporating them into his own compositions as natural an easy fit as that of his beloved ceramic slides. Early reviews of “Coventry Blue” Smooth, Mature Tracks “Coventry Blue is yet another resilient collection of cool bluesy pop...and Spencer's cool slide guitar has never sounded better. You won't hear calculated attempts at hit songs here.
This album presents smooth mature tracks that glide by like clouds in the sky. Fifteen well-crafted cuts here including "Happy Troubadour," "Sounds Like Paris," "Nightingale's Pledge," and "The World In Her Heart." / Personnel: Jeremy Spencer: Vocals, Slide Guitar, Resonator, Acoustic Guitars, Piano, Organ Brett Lucas: Electric Guitar, Acoustic, Twelve-String and Resonator Guitars, Back Up Vocals James Simonson: Electric and Stand-Up Bass Todd Glass: Drums and Percussion Rachel May: Vocals Molly Hughes: Violin Mimi Morris and Stephan Koch: Cello Duncan McMillan: Accordion.
