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Album Reviews
Album Review: Seasick Steve – You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks (Play It Again Sam)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 2 June 2011
I want to go out drinking with Seasick Steve. I just have to get that out of the way first, before I even begin to express how great this record is. ‘You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks’, the fifth studio album from the Californian blues legend who rose from obscurity late in life after an appearance on ‘Later’ – is swampy, DIY-sy, dive-bar goodness down to the very last note.
Opening with the world-weary ‘Treasures’, listeners could be fooled into thinking that this is a sombre affair, a broken-down-Johnny-Cash, weathered and sad, but beautiful. The album kicks off soon after that note though with the soaring ‘You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks’, ‘Don’t Know Why She Loves Me But She Does’ and the absolutely fantastic, frenzied blues of ‘Back In The Dog House’, a song I found incredibly hard to take off of repeat. ‘Party’ is a lot of fun too, slide guitar used aplenty, hard and musically vivid.
“It’s a funny thing getting old because you just feel young still”, he tells us on ‘Days Gone’. “But your body don’t feel young no more”. Steven Wold may be an old man with old habits, but it’s these habits that allow him to bash out the goods. It’s strange to think his first studio album was only released a mere seven years ago. Let’s hope that the next seven years bring five more. TW
Physical release: 30 MayS
