Mike Guldin

Tumblin’

Blue Heart

The tempting way to begin this review was to hail yet another Pennsylvania act living near this writer, and while we give an obligatory nod to that notion, we then learn that the album was recorded at seven different studios by over a dozen players, beyond just the usual Philly area suspects. This is two-time IBC finalist Mike Guldin’s third studio album and fourth overall. The tireless blues warrior has obviously made many friends along the way, dating back even to his sophomore album, Roadhouse Rhythm in 2005. So, this multiple guest thing is anything but new.

For Tumblin’ the singer-songwriter-guitarist-bandleader and songwriter partner and co-producer Bill Sharrow bring aboard Philly area musicians Mikey Junior, Roger Girke, Will Hodgson, Craig Thatcher, and Kevin Vannoy. That’s understood, given Guldin’s presence in and around the Philly metro. Yet, he taps the ubiquitous keyboard master Kevin McKendree, fellow Nashville-based guitarist James Pennebaker (like McKendree, formerly of Delbert McClinton’s band), keyboardist Lewis Stephens of Mike Zito’s band and trumpeter Luis Mora. These guests add spice to select tracks, not to steal thunder from Guldin’s core unit of CJ Clark on bass, Billy Wear on drums, and Tim Hooper on keys.

These thirteen originals with only “She Caught the Katy” and “Key to the Highway” as covers, begin with the instrumental “Tumblin’,” also the name of Guldin’s band (Mike Guldin and The Tumblers). McKendree’s distinctive rollicking piano and Mikey Junior’s harp color the shuffle, “Sad and Lonely.” Thankfully Guldin doesn’t try to mimic the funky Taj Mahal version of “She Caught the Katy,” instead giving it more of an easy flowing feel, with a slide guitar turn from Thatcher, cutting with Guldin in true southern rock twin guitar mode. An album highlight is “Twisted Tail,” the Philly venue where Mikey Junior hosts the Sunday blues jam. Naturally, the harp man sings and blows on this swampy tune.

Guldin, to his credit, meshes more than traditional blues into his repertoire, touching on rock, country, and soul as well. The first example of this eclecticism is the honky-tonk “Alabama Pines,” (not the Jason Isbell song) with Pennebaker stepping away from usual Telecaster to play the requisite pedal steel. Others include the horn driven Muscle Shoals sounding “Raise a Ruckus” featuring Vannoy and Mora, as well as the soulful “Sweet Thing,” where the horn players return and McKendree bathes it with his B3. “Check Yourself” takes on a folk-country feel with Hodgson playing mandolin and harp and Guldin’s tasty guitar leads.

Roger Girke leads “House of Cards” on vocals with the horns in tow for a tune that hearkens back to early R&B a la The Coasters until Girke and Guldin trade blistering licks. The core band, featuring Hooper’s piano with Girke joining on guitar, go joyous on the bouncy “That’s All She Wrote” and take the old Muddy Waters lyric “you just can’t lose what you never had” to boisterous levels on “You Just Can’t Lose” with Guldin’s Chuck Berry-like riffs and a host of voices on the chorus. The tempo downshifts into the ballad “Home Is Where The Heart Is,” buoyed by twin keys of Hooper’s piano and McKendree’s B3.

Guldin has fun with his political rebuke, “One Percent” and unleashes the power of his band on the classic Broonzy “Key to the Highway,” with Mikey Junior returning. Perhaps they had the album Layla in mind not only with this stirring rendition, but by closing with the twin acoustic guitars of Guldin and Thatcher on the instrumental “Waterfall.”

Convivial spirit abounds as Guldin and friends throw an infectious blues party.

• Jim Hynes

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