Shake It Up

         

01 Some Days (4:46)
02 Eat Yo Words (3:49)
03 Blues Start Walkin' (4:25)
04 No Good (4:22)
05 Danger Zone (3:48)
06 Begging Bowl (4;12)
07 Shake It Up (2:39)
08 Farmyard Blues (3:09)
09 Cymbaline (3:43)
10 Hymn to the Water of Life (2:59)
11 Every Confidence (3:56)
12 Pond Snake (4:00)
13 Easy Blues (7:06)

Recorded by Mick Clarke at Fabulous Rockfold Studio, Surrey, England
All songs written by Mick Clarke MCPS/PRS

From BK, New Jersey to Greg Lewis wfdu.radioactivity.fm

"Man that damn Mick Clarke "Easy Blues" is killin' me. Listened to it around 10 times!"

Review by Dmitry Epstein - Let It Rock

Change of pace for British blues stalwart. Intensitys intact, though.

Theres a punchline to each of Mick Clarkes recent albums which, at a record per year rate of late, amount to a solid stretch of creativity. From its very title on, Shake It Up picks up the action where the finale of 2014s "Crazy Blues" left off only to land on the Easy Blues laziness, but every quiet passage over the course of this devils dozen pieces is contrasted with a disturbing stir of air. So while the cinematic pastiche Cymbaline may make it all a mirage, the tension thats building here seems real.

Giving the sparse, serrated edge to Danger Zone, the guitarists one-man-band approach could be translated into a quest for authentic, but electric, sonic palette a glance back at the times when his chosen genre implied roaming the land if not for the full-on vibe of Blues Start Walkin' where Micks muscular twang gets a support from barrelhouse piano and a passionate vocal. Yet although Clarkes roar has a menace to it on Eat Yo Words or the heavy Every Confidence, and the instruments stacked in Farmyard Blues produce a rock roll abandon, Hymn To The Water Of Life offers a peaceful uplift.

Still, the veteran is not content with it and shatters the calm time and time again: heres the restlessness of soul a fount of eternal youth. Saying thats the last chapter of a trilogy, Mick Clarke promises to follow this album with a live one, to shake it up for the sake of solid easy action.

Mick writes: That difficult third album! (Sort of). Well I was full of ideas and came up with a whole bunch of new songs. Some work better than others.. 'Some Days' has endured, and the totally self indulgent 'Easy Blues' found a market. Other tracks that I was proud of at the time never really caught on. I re-recorded 'Blues Start Walking' and it did well. The title track got some airplay and I may well remaster and re-issue it sometime. Shake it Up.