This Is the Real Deal: "Ace, Jack, & King"

Cook, Eli: Ace, Jack & King

 Cook, Eli: Ace, Jack & King

Blues Rock 5.0/5.0Independent/Unsigned
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by Craig Hartranft,  08.08.2011

Blues music is something difficult to explain, yet immediately recognizable. Guitar skill is certainly required, but feel is equally as importance as substance. You feel the blues in your in your heart and soul, down to the bone. I remember getting my first BB King LP, and then later my Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson box sets. Real American blues, folk, rock, country or otherwise. If you don't know the blues, you probably don't know how to play rock.
Eli Cook knows real American blues, something easily understood on his fifth album Ace, Jack & King. The soul of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt is channeled through his own music and interpretations of the lesser known Skip James, Charles Brown, Rev. Gary Davis and Nick Drake. This music is unembellished, stripped down, and gritty. Driftin', Death Rattle, Better Man, and Snake Charm, to name a few, drip the blood of blues authenticity and soul. But isn't that the essence of American blues, unpretentious and uncomplicated, tearing at the fabric of your life?  You can hear it in Cook's vocals, a mixture of whiskey and winter, and his original fret interpretations. Add Waverly Miller's gritty and anguished harmonica, and Cocaine Blues and Crow Jane will rattle your bones.
On Ace, Jack & King, guitarist Eli Cook offers authentic American blues, pure, simple and entertaining. This is the real deal, and harkens back to the Sixties and Seventies when blues and rock began to converge. Recommended.http://www.dangerdog.com/2011-music-reviews/eli-cook-ace-jack-king-review.php