Mike Mattison

Afterglow

Landslide

One of the clear highlights of the Tedeschi-Trucks Band’s great live shows is when vocalist and songwriter Mike Mattison takes his turn on a lead vocal. Through most of the set he backs Susan Tedeschi with harmonies and percussion. Most will also recall Mattison’s days as the lead vocalist for the Derek Trucks Band. With both DTB and TTB he won a Grammy for Best Blues Album. The TTN has also won five BMAs and two Canadian Maple Blues Awards. So, the well-decorated Mattison, has a solid launching pad for his solo work, Afterglow beign his second solo venture, following You Can’t Fight Love from 2014. Most of us have long been familiar with his expansive vocal range so the most surprising aspect of this project is its breadth of roots music, stretching from blues to Americana to rock n’ roll.

Mattison co-produced with fellow TTB member, the drummer Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell. While Mattison plays acoustic guitar Dave Yoke handles the electrics, Frahner Joseph the bass, three others join on select tracks – former Scrapomatic bandmate Paul Olsen – guitar on four, Rachel Eckworth – Keyboards on three and the late Kofi Burbridge plays organ n two. All ten songs were with penned or co-penned by Mattison. Mattison adds that the album “is really the result of the three of us, {Yoke, Greenwell, and me} tracking live in Falcon’s garage. And adding the bass later. it’s a throwback recording in a way, a nod to our garage band days: Loose and louche. We lucky to have Jason KInsland’s guiding hand on the final mix. He has the perfect touch.”

The opening Americana-infused story “Charlie Idaho”  according to Mattison “is based on the haunting true story from Alan Lomax’s book The Land Where Blues Began about a levee camp boss who murders a ‘Mercy Man” sent by the government to make sure that the mules in his camp weren’t being mistreated. Nobody seemed to mind about the workers. It’s a story of hard labor, fear, futility, animals, men and very little mercy. Maybe a pinch of humor?” This may seem to some like a rather literate way to open an album but Mattison graduated from Harvard cum laude with a degree in American Literature. Such tales come naturally to him.

The title track owes the chords in the chorus to Derek Trucks and feature Paul Olen on the animated introduction. “Deadbeat” has a blissful melody and chorus that belies its title.  “Word’s Coming Down” is filled with Beatlesque hooks. The crooning ballad ”All You Can Do Is Mean It’ is the only tune featuring both keyboardists and has some nice slide work from Yoke. Tempo picks up with the Petty-like “Kiss You Where You Live.” “I Was Wrong” has Mattison in falsetto mode at the outset before the tune settles into a thumping groove.  The first ostensible blues mixes with garage rock on “On Pontchartrain” as Olsen takes a fiery lead mid piece and Mattison layers in background vocals throughout.

A standout track, and one that takes on additional meaning with last year’s passing of Burbridge, is “I Really Miss You,” which was co-penned with Burbridge 16 years ago. Burbridge had the chords and story concept. Mattison says, “I wrote the lyrics and melody ‘to-order,’ as it were, and we shook hands on the results. It was that easy.” It’s a slow smoldering blues, with Mattison again in the high register vocally. The disc closes with “Got Something for You,” a pulsating singalong rocker.

At first listen, and to Mattison’s credit, this music doesn’t sound much like the TTB. Closer listening, though, reveals a soulful approach in this set of mostly melodic, hook-filled fare.

• Jim Hynes