A lot of people play the race card when it comes to the blues—you’re having a nice conversation about some good music, and the next thing you know, they’re going back to get their second cousin, that’s Johnnie Cochran. (To mangle an old blues phrase.) Plenty of white blues fans get upset when you opine that maybe Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd are lacking a little passion and authenticity. “You just hate them because they’re young and white,” I hear.
Well, I was young and white once, it’s cool. But guitarist Sean Costello is not only white, he’s younger than Kenny, and more authentic than either one of the wunderkinder. We could run down his resumé (playing with Susan Tedeschi) and his admirers (James Cotton), or the raves surrounding his debut, 1996’s Call The Cops, but we don’t have to, because this is his REAL coming out party, and all you need to know is in the groove.
The good news on Cuttin’ In is that this enfant terrible already seems to be maturing: he’s laying back on the solos just a bit and allowing the spaces to tell part of the story. He’s also a bit less mannered as a singer these days, invoking real lust, not just the concept, into Chicago shuffles like “Talk To Your Daughter” and the Willie Dixon standard “I Want To Be Loved.”
Even better, he’s demonstrating a breadth of styles that many grizzled old vets never get around to. Anyone born and raised in New Orleans will get chills over the accuracy of the easy, sexy stroll on the title track, not to mention his takes on Earl King’s “Those Lonely, Lonely Nights” and Lil’ Bob and the Lollipops’ “I Got Loaded” (where his guitar mimics the horn section so well, you don’t miss it). Then there’s the amiable (but dirty) washboard shuffle of “Rub-A-Dub” and the jumpin’ jive of Costello’s own ace instrumental “Jumpin’ Salty.” And lest you think this is all some academic exercise, don’t worry—Costello’s race and age cease to be a factor, or even a coherent thought, about 30 seconds into this disc. Would that everyone else in the blues got by on fire alone.
