Ralph Atkinson - Moonfire Woman

Hear The Track Here

Here's another Soundclick musician who seems to have been around forever and yet my first review of Canada's Ralph Atkinson was with Building A Time Machine (October 2009), a very tasty slice of the blues which got a well deserved Must Have from me at the time. SInce then, however, Ralph has gone from strength to strength both as a songwriter and a musician finally ending up as my Artist Of The Year 2011. I do like to see AOTY nominees getting right back on the saddle, so it's no surprise to find Ralph still pumping out the tracks like there was no tomorrow.

One of the major things I look for with that particular award is 'stickability' and Ralph has copious amounts of it, musically and personally. But this is another year starting and you are only as good as the last thing you released.... See, no end to the pressure when you get up there with the big dogs... One of the main things that keep me on Ralph's side is that his music, like the man, is simple and straightforward, so you either like what he does or you don't. I have a lot of time for his music because it is easy to grasp, usually upbeat and always interesting - at least to a fellow guitarist. As I have said many times, I prefer him when he's on a blues kick but when I can't get that, any of his other genres will do the trick just as well.

Moonfire Woman is unashamedly blues to its core, the kind of thing you would expect from someone like Eric Clapton (and I really don't say that lightly). It is a measure of how confident and assured a musician Ralph is. He knows what he does and he does it well and that's pretty much that. For my money, all true rockers are that simple, the only thing that really counts is the groove and Ralph has always been especially tasty in that regard. It's no surprise then that Moonfire Woman went down a storm with me but I do prefer this side of his work. The surprise - as always - is in the hugely enjoyable music experience he provides and IMHO this is one of brighter moments..

MUST HAVE blues rock (old school)