Eric Johanson The Deep and the Dirty Ruf Records Louisiana blues-rocker Eric Johanson has a ridiculously cool album with his latest release The Deep and the Dirty.  Enlisting Jesse Dayton (Rob Zombie, X, Samantha Fish) surely accounts for the badassery which abundantly flows out of the dozen original tracks contained on this record.  With Eric Johanson on guitar and vocals, the band is comprised of drummer Terence Higgins, and bassist Eric Vogel, along with Jesse Dayton and Patrick Herzfeld on shaker/tambourine. Rocking out in a Hendrix fashion, Johanson greets the listener with “Don’t Hold Back”.  The infectious hard-driving riff is painted with explosive guitar licks.  Immediately following is the title-track The “Deep and the Dirty”.  I love Vogel’s buttery blues-soaked bassline.  It sounds great and draws me quickly in to enjoy Johanson’s smokin’ performance.  His slide-play on “Beyond the Sky” and “Familiar Sound” is deliciously swampy and captivating.  Led Zeppelin had a “Stairway to Heaven”.  Johanson on the other hand has a ride to “Elysian Fields”.  That song stands out as instrumentally grand and wonderfully poetic.  I quickly fall for the highly infectious “Galaxy Girl”.  Johanson cooks this one to a rapid boil from the git-go with an amazing guitar performance. The Deep and the Dirty from Eric Johanson is a heavy load of blues served with hard-driving guitar.  I love every single bit of it, and highly recommend giving it a listen.

By Phillip Smith

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