by Frank Matheis © 2004
Michael Powers (a.k.a. Murchison)
Onyx Root
Baryon 2004
“It’s gonna be my time, after a while…”
…says the often-used old blues line. Now it’s high time for Michael Powers.
My first thought was “It sounds like Muddy Waters with Jimi Hendrix as his guitarist”. Of course, there is a whole lot more to it and such simple comparisons don’t do justice, but this thinking not without merit. Onyx Root is a rare gem that stands out as one of the best blues albums I’ve heard in a very long time.
Who is this guy? How come he is not a superstar? How can it be that someone so unbelievably good could be so close, yet so far away? Nowadays, when the market is flooded by weak, clichéd blues releases from even the most mediocre sideman, how can it be that a musician of such amazing skill can stay out of the limelight?
Singer/songwriter and guitarist Michael Powers , not to be confused with the Seattle based guitarist by the same name, is a mainstay of New York City’s great blues club Terrablues, where he is the Friday night house-band. He’s not exactly from out of nowhere, although fame has so far eluded him. In the early 1960’s Powers was the guitarist for the pop R&B group the Ad Libs, who had a hit with “(Do wah, doo wah diddy, he’s a) Boy from New York City”. The Ad Libs were near famous and recorded some pretty cool stuff, which is still great when you hear it today. Ever since, Powers has been paying his dues and living the blues, literally and figuratively. No youngster, the affable Powers lost a leg to diabetes, had his share of hard times, and he lived to tell about it. He can sing the blues about all the reasons why he could have been, should have been and about the one that got away. This album is his best shot, and so far the stars are lining up just right. Michael Powers is the real deal. Decades ago he should have been elevated to the stature bestowed on Buddy Guy , Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Clapton, because he belongs in their ranking. He is a little late on the fame horizon, but even if this is the only record he will ever make, artistically and in sheer musical prowess Onyx Root is a masterpiece. It sounds and feels like it came from another time, yet totally fresh. Onyx Root should propel him to international fame if his management and upstart record label do their job right, as it is certainly the best blues album I’ve heard all year long. Every time I play one of Power’s songs on WKZE the phone lights up. Especially the real blues devotees are blown away and with good reason.
His CD release party performance at the Living Room in the East Village of NYC was amazing. Powers is the only guitarist I’ve ever heard that truly reminded me of Jimi Hendrix. It’s not so much that Powers sounds like Hendrix, although he can when he wants to. It’s that he has the finesse, touch, magic, and the feeling the very musical essence that Jimi had. Powers made me feel like I was finally witnessing what I had missed before, not as a mere mimicker, but one who channels the beauty of Jimi Hendrix’s music into the deep blues. Michael Powers, an extraordinarily brilliant guitarist and soulful singer, is different, he took just the right stuff from Jimi and developed his own deep blues style.
This is as close to the perfect blues album I’ve ever heard, and certainly a modern classic. This is Michael Power’s Hoodoo Man. Everything is just right. It would not be a stretch to say that on many levels, especially production, Onyx Root is up a notch from the highly touted debuts by Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughn and even Joe Lewis Walker. Kudos to producers Steve Rosenthal and Jimi Zhivago, who understood this artist and captured him flawlessly. Frank Garfi at Studio 900 beautifully engineered the CD.
Onyx Root covers the gamut. Virtually the entire spectrum of black music up to the late 70’s is spanned without any notable shift. You get powerful covers of classics by Muddy Waters, the Howling Wolf and Willie Dixon to unexpected treasures by Vera Hall, Leonard Cohen, and Count Five. Powers’ originals are equally exciting and showcase his true strength as a songwriter. By the time you get toward the end of the album you’ve integrated funk, rock, soul and R&B without ever really feeling a change. The slight genre bending is irrelevant because Powers understands that these musical forms are at their roots one and the same. He is unmistakably a bluesman and the blues is the basis of it all. If only Muddy could have heard Powers’ version of Country Boy he would have been proud, and maybe fired his guitarist. Personally, this is the best version of the song I’ve heard, sans Muddy’s originals. The album opens with Successful Son, an original, autobiographical introspective that unveils the rich, raspy tenor singing and dazzling guitar work of this CD. Powers is a fierce, crisp and multi-faceted guitar stylist whose range of technique and superlative skill is guided by the wisdom of taste. In the hands of a lesser man, guitar skills like this often lead to infinitely boring, self-possessed show-off noodling. He harnessed his guitar prowess and focused his style to ride the top end of the blues guitarist spectrum without losing sight of his songs. Not only that, but he can sing.
Michael Powers is bold and this record is a triumph!