David Vest

Roadhouse Revelation

Cordova Bay Records

 

With every left jab you better expect a right punch. And Vest counter-punches excellently with Roadhouse Revelation, the follow-up to his Maple Blues Award nominated East Meets Vest CD. Once again he has reunited that successful grouping from the previous release, with Fathead’s Teddy Leonard hitting the strings on his guitar precisely as the song necessitates, while Downchild’s rhythm section of bassist Gary Kendall and drum man Mike Fitzpatrick deliver the groove. Together they’re known as The Willing Victims.

Vest also works out his typical piano plan. Work all of the keys, leaving no note unturned. He is a master of all piano styles and it often comes across as if it has not been done before, Vest will do it for certain eventually, and we’ll all learn from it. He falls into the same class as the masters. Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, if they could lay down a boogie, Vest will match them and will raise them an extra 88 keys.

You name a direction on the keyboards, chances are very great that Vest takes them on within Roadhouse Revelation. He tackles the piano rolls of the greats from years past on “Streetcar,” taking us down a path not heard anywhere near enough nowadays. And Teddy Leonard’s guitar maintains the perfect rhythmic flavor of the bygone era to match Vest’s keys.

“Stand Your Ground” offers a Rolling Stones-like pattern on guitar that turns the burners up. While “Gone Too Far” revisits that soulful Memphis ground covered with a bit of country flair a la Jerry Lee Lewis. The country side of Vest continues to be seen within his cover of Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man” as he even invokes a bit of yodel intonation on the track.

But deep down in his heart David Vest is a true-blue blues musician. He even tells you so as he sings about public servants who think more of themselves than those they work for in “Crooked Politician,” a number he co-penned with his late partner Paul deLay. He sings about the “low-down politician who takes money from the poor and puts it in his own pocket,” while informing you that “you can tell him that you heard it from a blues musician that a crooked politician is only concerned with his own condition.”

And the blues is very much at the core of “That Happened To Me,” again featuring Leonard’s stinging sharp guitar lines extenuating Vest’s key tickling in just the manner expected.

David Vest has been working his keys for more than fifty years, so maybe he is the answer to the question of “what makes grandma love grandpa so? He can still boogie woogie like he did fifty years ago.” Oh yeah, “He may have a mind full of trouble and heart full of rock and roll, nothing but the blues can satisfy my soul.” Thank God for that! David Vest has delivered another incredible album of delicious piano stylings. Long live the Boogie Piano King!

 

Total Time: 38:59

Freight Train Rolling / Stand Your Ground / Ramblin’ Man / You Came Through / Streetcar / Gone Too Far / Crooked Politician / Santa Fe Steamer / That Happened To Me / Heart Full Of Rock And Roll / Pretty Things For Anne