No matter what lofty accomplishments and accolades Jason Ricci has reaped over his illustrious career, he’s become a product of his Crescent City environs, his home for over a decade. The preeminent harp howler has collaborated and performed with many of the city’s best: Papa Mali, The Iguanas, Eric Johanson, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone, Dean Zucchero, and others. In 2021, Ricci and pianist, organist Joe Krown released one of the year’s hippest albums in City Country City.
Ricci is also a disciple of Bob Murret’s old school blues, R&B radio show on WWOZ and wanted to capture that raw, vintage vibe of how bands recorded back then, live in one room with drums. That quest led him to interview several producers until landing Tony Daigle, who seconded Ricci’s novel idea.
The Ruth Brown-popularized “5-10-15 Hours” was the catalyst for this recording, and despite being in Ricci’s repertoire for years, he captured it the way he heard it on Murret’s shows, greasy loose where you can feel the slap of every beat. Ricci’s wife, Kaitlin Dibble, exhibits a sassy demeanor about her vocals, and like a lot of songs on this platter, Ricci goes on a hellacious tear midway through. “5-10-15” [Hours] is the only song he plays in a traditional blues harmonica style. On almost every other tune, Ricci applies his masterful overblowing technique, where he gets a higher pitch based on the air blown into the harmonica.
A few other selections seem vintage enough to have been inspired by Murret’s shows. “Baked Potato,” one of six band originals, swings like crazy with an insatiable melodic hook. Booker T. & The M.G.’s “Hip Hug-Her” is a ridiculous soul strutter with guitarist Brent Johnson’s blistering solo that can only be topped by Ricci’s marathon scorching ride, which takes Krown’s B3 Organ cruising to calm everything down. Even though practically everyone and his brother have waxed “St. James Infirmary,” Ricci develops a progressively deep solo that concludes with an unexpected treatment of Pachelbel’s Canon.
Despite being one of the planet’s most brilliant harp purveyors, if not the edgiest, Ricci manages to thread lighthearted moments throughout the proceedings. On Bobby Rush’s “Ain’t She Fine,” Ricci sings in a comical, contorted voice to profess his affection for a gaudy Alabama disco mama flecked in pink. On the harmonica-wicked “Cirque du Soleil,” bassist Jack Joshua croons about being a clown in a relationship and cites the names of various circuses. The groovy “Why Don’t We Sleep On It” is the best of this ilk, a modern day twist of Otis Redding and Carla Thomas’ ’67 hit “Tramp.” Ricci and Dibble play off each other humorously, with Dibble always getting the upper hand with a zany last word.
Even though Ricci and the Bad Kind’s last two albums, Approved By Snakes and My Chops Are Rolling!!, were fairly killer-diller, with Behind the Veil, Ricci found an even better combination of seasoned ingredients to stir into the pot.
