Review: Nelsen Adelard Band Seductive Sexy Blues—Spirit-lifting Music!
July 23, 2008
CD: Blues Got a Hold on Me, (JBird Records, Rohm Music/BMI 1999)
The first time I was introduced to the Nelson Adelard Band was in 2000 in Los Angeles. They were playing in the Borders book store in Glenfield, Los Angeles, California. One might think this was an odd place for a band to be playing, but I found it refreshing and bold. More bands in bookstores please! I bought the CD the same day and it’s a part of my signed collection of songwriters I admire and whose work I enjoy.
“Why?”
I love that sort of question; why is it that too few ask? But let’s leave that question for something that is not a review—perhaps I’ll write another article on it someday. I buy the material of artists who create their own material, who have integrity and a passion and skill that moves me through the vehicle of their craft. If it doesn’t move me I’m not interested. I want original material, and that doesn’t mean it has to be far removed from genre or a twisted warp on style and tradition.
Nelsen Adelard is without a doubt a talented songwriter and he commands a mighty set of chords which he uses to good measure. From the start of this beautifully mastered CD you feel the raw warm power of the blues stir your heart, emotion a perfect match with the lyrics and sentiments expressed. These songs get me rocking, they are infectious, welcome spirit-lifters that cover a range of mood and style that just puts me into a groove while I write.
I gotta say, “Nelsen, I love it, keep writing.”
But he doesn’t just create his own material. Nelsen epitomizes what we look for in a songwriter at the Free Articulator; he’s a multitalented songwriting instrumentalist who not only writes the material he plays it: on the Mississippi saxophone (harmonica) demonstrating with unmistakable style why it has that name; guitar and keyboards.
The title track of this album lays honest claim to the mastery of the band that Nelsen ably leads to deliver these great tunes that add to the R&B library. Several could be staples. Nelsen’s harmonica just rips at your nerve endings like nails raking over velvet skin…”Yeah, sensuous baby!”
Reminiscent of the trademark ebb and flow of some of Sting’s sophisticated R&B-based arrangements on landmark albums like Ten Summoner’s Tales the Nelsen Adelard Band has an amazing ability to change mood and pace, playing with the natural predictability all of us look for in great music, and surprising us constantly with turns of musical phrase and timing as it moves from track to track for ten great R&B tunes that showcase the truly expressive instrument of Nelsen’s voice—“torment and tenderness” as one reviewer has described him. I’ve seen him in person, she’s right. Reviews are, for once, consistent and with good reason—this is quality.
If you have a heart for R&B you’ll fall in love with this collection of songs and play them over and over again, because the music, the message and the arrangements have the R&B kicks ‘n licks that make it a solid ass-kicking genre in its own right.
If you want to dance, or just listen to some blood-stirring music that has passion in every chord, then this collection of R&B will get a hold on you and provide hours of listening pleasure. You can get it here. Jack of All Trades is a second album released in 2002 and when I’ve got it I’ll let you know all about it. I’m also eager to listen to Take Me Back which was released in 2005, once again as soon as I have it, I’ll review it. Until then Blues Got a Hold on Me is regular on my play list. Buy and listen to this CD. If you’re in California look up the band. But do buy and listen to this CD and be grateful, the Nelsen Adelard Band is performing in and around the stomping grounds of Los Angeles and next time I’m there, I’ll be stopping by. As one reviewer has said of Jack of All Trades, “I would like to hear someone from any label explain why Nelsen isn’t signed. What song on this CD won’t sell?”
Well, I would say this: Nelsen is a performer of lasting quality, he continually produces good quality material, songs that have a powerful emotional effect, that capture human experience and treat it with dignity and respect, demonstrating a profound empathy for the human condition. His music runs the gamut of emotion, and he is not confined to a single mood, atmosphere or emotion. His appeal is in his range and the sensitive way with which he and the musicians he plays with present the music.
It has heart and soul because they put their collective heart and soul into those songs and therefore the songs communicate with an intensity of feeling that is the hallmark of great musicianship; the kind of musicianship that stems from an inner love of the power of music to move the human spirit in meaningful ways. So not a note is wasted, each one knows its place and it is placed with consummate skill and an instinct that is unerring. The band disappears and the songs take on the life their composer has given them. Nelsen’s music will survive him because it has the kind of qualities that people will always look for. I’m a fan, I believe when you hear Nelsen and his band, you’ll become one too. Check out the YouTube vid here for some live Nelsen Adelard.
You can find out where Nelsen is playing at his website.
Website: http://www.nelsenadelard.com/
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