Clear Blue Flame by Delta Moon

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Americana | Slide Guitar Blues

11 tracks | 40 minutes

Released Jul 2007
on Jumping Jack Records

Click for a 30-second preview. All tracks are 192kbps high fidelity sound quality. Protected WMA $0.77 or unprotected MP3 $0.88.

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sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:07 Clear Blue Flame lyrics BUY MP3 04:07 Clear Blue Flame lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:07 Clear Blue Flame

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:41 Blind Spot lyrics BUY MP3 03:41 Blind Spot lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:41 Blind Spot

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:48 Money Changes Everything lyrics BUY MP3 03:48 Money Changes Everything lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:48 Money Changes Everything

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:39 Trouble in the Home lyrics BUY MP3 03:39 Trouble in the Home lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:39 Trouble in the Home

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:20 Jessie Mae lyrics BUY MP3 04:20 Jessie Mae lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:20 Jessie Mae

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:29 Cool Your Jets lyrics BUY MP3 03:29 Cool Your Jets lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:29 Cool Your Jets

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:15 Life's a Song lyrics BUY MP3 04:15 Life's a Song lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:15 Life's a Song

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:07 Stranger in My Hometown lyrics BUY MP3 03:07 Stranger in My Hometown lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:07 Stranger in My Hometown

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:04 Lap Dog lyrics BUY MP3 03:04 Lap Dog lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:04 Lap Dog

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:47 I'm a Witness lyrics BUY MP3 03:47 I'm a Witness lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:47 I'm a Witness

sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:20 You Done Told Everybody lyrics BUY MP3 03:20 You Done Told Everybody lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:20 You Done Told Everybody

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Dual slide guitars and strong, gritty songwriting.

Editorial review

The Southern swamp blues-rock of Delta Moon takes a significant turn with the exclusion of a female frontperson/vocalist for the first time in the group's career. Guitarist/songwriter Tom Gray is the exclusive singer throughout, which gives this a slightly tougher, less overtly sexy texture than previous albums. Gray's grainy voice isn't polished, but its rough-around-the-edges crunch is perfect for the slippery twin slide guitar-propelled attack that Delta Moon have all but patented. Songs such as "Jessie Mae" (dedicated to and about blues woman Jessie Mae Hemphill) take funky, greasy riffs and drive them home through repetition and intensity as the rhythm section stays in the pocket. The style shifts slightly to include the greasy midtempo "Life's a Song," which features the dual intertwining guitars laying down the foundation, but generally the template remains consistent for the majority of these 11 tracks. Gray is a classy songwriter whose topics of ornery men and women generally mistreating each other are handled with sophistication and a deft touch unusual for the genre. Most impressive is the sense of restraint for a band that features two excellent slide guitarists (Mark Johnson is the other). The solos are short, sharp, and concise, and don't compromise the melodies for the sake of aimless wanking, a refreshing change for both Southern rock and blues played by guitarists. Gray revisits his own number one hit, "Money Changes Everything," in a fiddle-soaked version that sounds unlike either the original new wave-oriented approach by his first band, the Brains, or Cyndi Lauper's far more Technicolor -- and popular -- cover. But that is not typical of this more aggressive set, which hones Delta Moon's established slide guitar-dominated sound with tight playing, memorable melodies, and a gutsy sense of red-clay rebelliousness found all too rarely in prepackaged contemporary blues-rock. ~ Hal Horowitz, All Music Guide

Bio / Background

Tom Gray and Mark Johnson first met in an Atlanta music store. When Tom tried to sell Mark a Dobro guitar out of the trunk of his car, the girl with Mark started whispering, “Let’s get out of here.” Mark didn’t buy the guitar, but he and Tom exchanged phone numbers. Soon the two were getting together regularly, Tom playing lap steel and Mark on bottleneck slide guitar.

At first, neither gave a thought to the idea of forming a double slide guitar band. Then Mark saw Ry Cooder and David Lindley perform together at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. “It was like a light came on over my head,” Mark said. “I thought, that’s what Tom and I do.” The two, along with singer Gina Leigh and a rotating cast of drummers and bassists, formed Delta Moon. Their idea was to weave the two slide guitars into one big sound, in the tradition of great two-guitar bands like the Rolling Stones, the Allman Brothers, and the early Fleetwood Mac.