Playing his first London date for far too long, rock blues guitarist Innes Sibun quickly showed he has lost none of his chops, and for the first time in his career he’s started to sing.
Since first emerging on the blues scene 15 years ago, Innes has impressed both rock and blues fans alike with some explosive playing and a recorded catalogue as strong in the melodic FM rock department as blues.
But with his current line-up of Dan Inzani on keys, Duncan Kingston on bass and Denby Sweeting on drums, he seems to have come full circle back to the blues.
That said, Innes still loves nothing better than firing off some trademark licks, on a rocking mix of shuffles, including the impressive “Station Blues”, some impassioned slow blues and the occasional rock and roll outing. Then there’s his singing which is as passionate and raw as it is limited, but given the option between his previous situation in which his fiery solo’s would be dissipated by a relatively speaking laid back vocalist, it works far better with Innes doing both.
Both sets started with standard blues instrumentals on which Innes quickly showed his pedigree, and this being an album launch for his brand new “Farmhouse Blues” CD, the set was liberally peppered with new cuts.
Highlights of the new material was undoubtedly the slow minor blues “So Tired of Living” on which Innes conjured up a dazzling solo with a colourful tone, and the cool subtle, jazzy instrumental “Desert Rain”.
Not everything worked, as a laboured cover of Otis Rush’s “All Your Love” was a vocal ambition too far, but that was as minor aberration as he added a surprisingly effective, muscular funky rendition of Willy Dixon’s “I’m Ready “in a set that had the crowd roaring the band on to a deserved encore.
Innes stayed one step ahead of the game by interspersing his set with tempo changes, stylistic diversions and arrangements that involved the full band at every opportunity. But as ever it was the man’s sleight of hand on the guitar that dazzled the crowd, who even got a close at hand demonstration of his art with some beer bottle assisted slide on a raucous “Stormy Monday”.
On the evidence of this set, Innes Sibun isn’t aiming to change the blues
scene, on the other hand this storming set was both a timely reminder of a major
talent with a long overdue album that bodes well for the future.
Pete Feenstra