The mainstream buzz last week was all about the Rolling Stones and their new film release directed by blues nut Martin Scorsese called Shine A Light; even Delia Smith got in on the act in-between her hummus from frozen chickpeas as she name dropped the cake she made for the Let It Bleed cover!

What’s this got to do with Code Blue? Very little except Sugar Blue played on The Stones’ Some Girls and Emotional Rescue albums, notably on the track ‘Miss You’. We’ve not taken any interest in anything Stones related since the Ashley Beedle remix of ‘Rain Falls Down’ but I you’ve got to admit, their back catalogue is rather good.

Code Blue might not sell like a Jagger/Richards album but I suspect they’ll be playing their copies to death. I love Mr. Blue’s homage to the greats on ‘Chicago Blues’. Not quite the full name check tracklisting to A Rough Guide To The Blues but fairly close. And then ‘Bluesman’ sounds like a personal theme tune as his walks the walk with a Faces type piano riff (‘Sir’ Ian McLagan by coincidence also featured on ‘Miss You’ and was last seen at Wychwood Festival with Billy Bragg).

Now last week Peterson got all soundtrack with us (with a promise of a Vol. 2) but if you’re looking for an alternative harp lead track, I doubt you’d think matching the recent troubles of The Big Easy with a Theme from Taxi mood would work but ‘Nola’ is one of the Toots Thielemansesque highlights on the album. Along with the reggaefied jazz-schmaltz of ‘Walking Alone’ (trust me, it’s brilliant) the album is worth getting for these two tracks alone.

‘Bad Boys Heaven’ is traditional harmonica blues as he moans about “good lookin’ women” in bad boys Heaven (aka Chicago) while ‘Krystalline’ and ‘Shed No Tears’ are upbeat rockers hiding their dark sides.

The sleeve notes tell us Code Blue was inspired by Mr. Blues’ “life in crisis”. Now that’s the only way a blues song should be inspired and we hope getting out these 11 tracks was a cathartic experience of the good kind. There’s certainly a fine mix of good time and the melancholy. As the man says, ‘Let It Go’; how can he/we know the answers to the genocide in Darfur?

In the spirit of all blues, Code Blue is uplifting as James Whiting (aka Sugar Blue) takes us through the struggles of life’s pain. Get this line from the last track ‘High You Can’t Buy’, “Higher than mountains or the moon, higher than a Stevie Wonder tune. You are a high you can’t buy”. Great vocals, great harmonica, great band and great production — class!

UK Dates
1st April — The Junction, York
2nd April — The Borderline, London

Reviewed: Sugar Blue — Code Blue (Beeble) Cat. No. BB801 Release Date: 21st April 2008
Tracklisting
1. Krystalline (4:14)
2. Chicago Blues (5:40)
3. Bluesman (4:38)
4. Walking Alone (4:50)
5. Cold Blooded Man (4:27)
6. Nola (5:48)
7. Bad Boys Heaven (9:08)
8. Let It Go (3:30)
9. Shed No Tears (2:56)
10. I Don’t Know Why (5:44)
11. High You Can’t Buy (5:21)

Links:
www.sugar-blue.com
www.last.fm/music/Sugar Blue
Martin Scorsese and Rolling Stones on the making of Shine a Light on TimesOnline 22.03.08 — Ronnie Wood: “It’s funny. I was talking to Neil Young about how I’d survived it all, last night. Why are we still here? It’s great!” Shine a Light is released on 11th April 2008
2nd April — Odeon, 24-26 Leicester Square, 7:30pm : London’s West End for the UK premiere of the extraordinary motion picture Shine A Light, by director Martin Scorsese
BBC 2 Delia Smith Monday 24th March 2008
www.deliaonline.com
Gilles Peterson :: 27th March :: GP at the Movies Mix
John Cameron — ‘Burying Kes’ (Kes) (Trunk)
John Barry — ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (Midnight Cowboy) (EMI)
www.tootsthielemans.com
www.darfurgenocide.org