Cascade Blues Music Reviews Rush To Hell Jim Wallace Music Review Index

Music Review Reprint from the
July, 2001 BluesNotes
By Kurt Dahlke

• Cold Blue Steel

• Adam's Bone

• Salt On My Cheek

• Rush To Hell

• 2 Times 20

• Wrecked

• Kiss Me Or Cuss Me

• Submarine Blues

• Loser's Rhumba

• Pet Cream Man

• Would You Baby

• You May

    "Rush To Hell" starts out slow, chugging with a twanging guitar imitating the pace of a slow rolling train gathering speed. Veteran Bluesman, Jim Wallace, moans in anguish about his lonesome soul that can't be satisfied before hitting on some metallic sounding harp.

    Two-time CBA "Muddy Award" winner for "Best New Act" in 1992 and 1996, Wallace cut tracks for the immediate sounds of "Rush To Hell" in Amsterdam with The Boyd Small Blues Band. The Dutch are very into Blues and have, their own ideas about production. When asked if he had creative control over the final product, Jim said, "It's their record, done their way:"

    They did the right thing according to their perceptions. It sounds like everything was recorded through old-fashioned crystal microphones; there's a real emphasis on upper register sounds; the sting of the harp, arcing guitar tones and hissing hi-hats. Were it not for the digital production, this would be an old, authentic sounding recording, however, the lack of vinyl scratches, and that indefinable warmth of analog sound, mark this as a modern record.

    Wallace interprets many styles, from Jump Blues to on-the-floor shuffles in emotional, respectful style. Boyd Small's, "Submarine Blues", contains some real wheezy, throaty harmonica, while the unique Wallace-penned "Loser's Rhumba", highlights his chromatic harp soloing.

    Among the mostly Wallace written originals is J.B. Hutto's back porch growler, "Pet Cream Man" which might as well be streaming out of an old Philco radio on an 89-degree summer evening.

    William Clarke and Little Walter have influenced Wallace's sometimes-mournful harmonica. His admiration of swingin' guitarists Tiny Grimes, Charlie Christian and Pee Wee Crayton also shows up, especially on the tracks "Would You Baby" and "Adam's Bone". What's more, Boyd Small and his crack band of Dutch Bluesers do everything it takes to make these songs stand in fine, traditional form, bringing new life to time-tested styles.

    As it stands, "Rush To Hell", at times haunting, at times raunchy, is a great, authentic Blues recording with a timeless quality.  By the closer, "You May", you'll learn that there's a time when "everybody's got to go:" Luckily: you can always push play one more time.

© 2001 Cascade Blues Association