|  By
Cornbread
 Mark
Benno – I Got It Bad!
Marno Records, 2009
Mark Benno, the bluesy Texas
guitar and piano player, singer, songwriter has
worked with The Doors, Eric Clapton, Lightnin’
Hopkins, Bill Wyman, Georgie Fame, Rita Coolidge
and Leon Russell. Joining Benno is Jimmie Vaughan's
drummer George Rains, Sir Douglas Quintet bassist
Jack Barber, and members of the Infamous West Side
Horns from San Antonio. Besides playing guitar,
this humble looking gentleman attended Le Chef Culinary
Arts College in Austin, Texas and is a qualified
Chef.
The ten original tracks are:
1. Terminal Case of the Blues – Tenor sax,
trumpet and organ
2. Alone In San Antone – Hammond organ accompaniment
3. Texas Oil Driller – Piano & slide guitar,
cool lyrics
4. Torture Me – guitar, bass, drums
5. Too Bad You're No Good – Some more Hammond
6. Save our Love – Tenor sax, trumpet and
organ
7. Chance With You – a 50’s-esque rock
sound to it
8. Tip Jar – another guitar, bass and drums,
ain’t broke – don’t fix it
9. My Baby's A Gambler – a nice instrumental
10. Thing Or Two – Tenor sax and trumpet with
some rhythm guitar added
This
up-tempo and sometimes twelve bar blues has the
guitar feel of Albert King and the piano boogie
woogie of Johnny Johnson, two of my favorites. Prior
to this I had not heard of Benno, wish I had earlier.
This CD is solid, good blues guitar tidbits throughout,
strong backing band and good lyrics. Benno definitely
has the ingredients for and conjures up a heapin’,
helpin’ of Texas blues. The guitar is precise,
clean and warm sounding – man I’ll take
all that I can get. For the gear heads Mark plays
a vintage 70’s Fender Stratocaster through
a ’65 Fender Vibroverb. This album was recorded
and mixed at Blue Cat Studios in San Antonio, Texas.
This get’s a strong 4.5 out of 5 on the STLBLuesometer.
Peace and Love
Peter 'Cornbread' Cohen,
CBP
~
Cornbread@STLBlues.net
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