PDB – THE PAUL DESLAURIERS BAND (Big Toe Productions)
Superb blues-rock The annual mid-August Calabogie Blues & Ribfest
festival was a bit of a washout this year. The weekend Blues bash was plagued by an October-like day, downright cold and steady rain. In a nutshell, the weather sucked, big time! Yours truly opted to hole up in the warmth of a cozy
cabin about 45 minutes away – Christ, it was pissing all day Saturday! But our esteemed publisher was there, Bounder wagon
set up centre stage right. He gave me this CD post- weekend, raving about the band’s performance Saturday night and an acoustic set by DesLauriers with Angel Forrest Sunday; I kind of wish I hadn’t been such a fair weather fan after listening to it a few times! This is superb blues-rock from the very start. The
Montreal trio slayed the die-hard folks at Calabogie, and listening to this, it’s easy to see why. Their debut album as a band is rock steady throughout. Multiple Canadian and Quebec blues award winners in the past, DesLauriers (guitar, vocals), Greg Morency (bass) and Sam Harrisson
(drums) combine to kick the jams out big-time in ten tasty tunes, mostly originals with a couple of classic covers tossed in for good effect as a tribute to their roots. PDB starts off with a bang. Going
Down Slow is classic blues-rock anchored by a sliding rhythm, searing vocals and brilliant harmonica from Steve Marriner of Monkey Junk that fits glove-like with DesLaurier’s guitar brilliance and the driving rhythm section laid down by Morency and Harisson. Marriner tosses in more subtle
harmonica as the band cranks it out on She Should Be Mine. A little audio-vocal trickery injects nice variation to the tune. Labour of Love is classic 4/4 time, making one think of early Big Sugar or Foghat at their bluesiest. All sexual innuendo, bravado
lyrics and wicked slide, countered by the intricate guitar noodlings and lowered vocals near the end as the
www.bounder.ca BOUNDER MAGAZINE 13 BILL MACPHERSON
band eases off just a tad, it’s a winner. Next, the band colludes with Juno award winner Steve
Strongman on the straightforward, infectious All I Want. As the lyrics state, “Just play guitar!”, and DesLauriers and Strongman do just that – trading great back-and-forth riffs with the rhythm section totally along for the jam interplay. Probably my favourite track on the album slows it
down a bit. Covering Robert Johnson’s classic Love In Vain, DesLaurier’s vocals are heartfelt, the band simmering brilliantly, giving the often-covered (Rolling
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MUSIC REVIEW
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