Scotty Morris.
Save My Soul, the Los Angeles combo's second CD since 1998's breakthrough
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, is a perfectly adequate, occasionally inspired reconstruction of old-school boogie-woogie and jump blues. Twelve years of horn charts have given this Daddy an upbeat tightness that redeems the Dixieland-reviving "Zig Zaggity Woop Woop Pt. 1," the New Orleans march "You Know You're Wrong" and the slinky story-song "Oh Yeah." But ultimately Morris' flat singing can't keep up with the horns, and BBVD winds up swamped in the same sludge that stalled Setzer, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
STEVE KNOPPER
(July 8, 2003)
