Cascade Blues Music Reviews Complicated Life Albert Reda Music Review Index

Music Review Reprint from the
January, 2002 BluesNotes
By Greg Johnson

• Dyin' Blues

• Pray So hard

• Lovesick Melody

• Brickyard Blues

• Straight To The heart

• Down In The Bottoms

• When The Lights Go Out

• Long Black Veil

• 20 Years From Now (And The Satellites)

• De Haro

• Complicated Life

    For those who are familiar with the Pacific Northwest Blues scene, you need little introduction to Albert Reda.  Over the years, he has proven himself as perhaps the finest bass player in the region, if not the entire West Coast.  But, it is also true that if you've seen Albert perform on stage with any number of local artists, then you're also aware that he is quite an adept vocalist as well.  Actually, this is a role that I feel we do not get to see him display anywhere near as often as he should.  And, even further yet, this CD shows us that Albert is even deeper than just a bassist and vocalist. He tackles a whole variety of instrumentation offering astonishing skills on guitar, piano, organ and even the squeezebox.

    "Complicated Life" is a wonderful mixture of various musical styles which lets us all know Albert is not just solely a Bluesman.  The selections included offer compositions from songwriters as diverse as Blind Blake to Ray Davies (The Kinks) to New Orleans R&B genius, Allen Toussaint.  And, the album flows quite nicely between these sundry outings.  In fact, along with a half dozen Reda originals, this release should be a crossover blessing that can find a home on several different radio formats ranging from Country to Rock, and, of course, Blues.  A lot of the material brings to mind other crossover artists such as The Eagles or Gram Parsons, with their Country-Rock flavor, and on the opening track, Blind Blake's, "Dying Blues," Albert's vocals could sure fool me into believing this was a missing piece from Harry Nilsson's "Schmilsson" period.  The self penned, "20 Years From Now (And The Satellites)" runs a blend of brilliantly laid textures which would be right at home as Jazz-Rock Fusion or even as a snappy 1970's Progressive-Rock sampling with its hypnotic flair. And, that is followed by Albert giving a solo outing on the piano, opening a whole new side of himself that we may never have envisioned from him before.  But, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of Blues overtones throughout as well and I can't think of a track on here that does not appeal to my personal tastes.

    Albert has a lot of talented friends, too. He has collected a handful of them on this CD. How could you not appreciate an album that combines Terry Robb and Alan Hager on guitars, Jeff Minnick and Carlton Jackson handling drums, and Skip Parente on violin. Plus, Albert, as pointed out above, working as a virtual one-man band, sometimes layering multiple instruments.

    Eclectic would be the best term to describe "Complicated Life" as a whole.  Other terms I may use would range from well-mixed, well-executed, well-written, well-done, indeed!  Bravo, Albert!!

© 2002 Cascade Blues Association