The Name Droppers

Cool Blue Shoes

Horizon Music Group

The Name Droppers is a relatively new band consisting of Rafe Klein, guitar; Ron Rifkin, keyboards; Scott Spray, bass; and drummer Bobby T. Torello. The primary vocalist is Rafe Klein, although Torello and Rifkin sing lead on occasion. Torello is  a member of the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame and toured with Michael Bolton,  Grace Slick, Johnny Winter, The Jay Willie Blues Band, and others. Spray is an  award winning bass player who played with Johnny Winter and won a Grammy for  his work on Winter’s CD/DVD “Step Back”. Klein and Rifkin played along Charlie Karp when they still were Charlie Karp and The Name Droppers. This is the band’s  fifth album. The ensemble includes Klein, Rifkin, Spray, and Torello.

The album opens with “Killing Floor” originally recorded by Howlin’ Wolf in 1964, as  Klein sings “I should’a quit you, long time ago, and I wouldn’t have been here on the killing floor”. On the title track, “Cool Blue Shoes” written by Torello & Kein, with  the addition of guest vocalist Carole Sylvan and Joe Meo on sax, as Klein solefully chants “I’ve walked a mile and slept alone in these blue shoes, they’ve carried all my dreams, walked away my blues”.

The optomistic “Be Alright” written by Rifkin, includes gueat vocalist Simone Brown  and saxophonist Bill Holloman as Rifkin chimes “I gave you all I had from me to you, never again will you and I be blue”. “Keep Pushin” written by Klein & McClish, is a rocker with guest vocalist Brown, and producer Vic Steffens on piano as Klein cries out “Most of my friends have died from the war, they never found what they were  searchin’ for, sobriety ain’t always what it seems to be, keep pushin’ like my friends told me”.

“That’s The Way My Love Is” written by Michael Leslie Jones a.k.a. Mick is from the band Foreigner first performed in 2010, as Klein moans “there are things I cannot  say to you, that’s the way my love is, but in my heart you’ll always stay with me”.  “Hard Way” was written by the band and is about a man on the run as Klein groans  “I think she’s gone, she left him in the dirt, she said he lies and that her feelings were  hurt, but he’s on the run, don’t give a damn”.

“I Cry For You” was wriiten and recorded by Willie Dixon in 1988. On the whimsical “Think Yiddish” written by Torello & Klein, Torello sings lead as he chirps “well I went  to the doctor, the doctor said, too much pizza and American bread, too many  Budweisers give you a sleepy head, think Yiddish, dress British, that’s what he said”.

“Yes I Will” is a ‘call and response’ as Rifkin shouts “I’ll be the one you talk to, yes I will, I will ease your worried mind, yes I will”. On the closer “Out Of The Blue” written  by Klein with guest vocalist Brown and Bill Holloman on sax, is performed as a duet  as they croon “I was such a lonely man with a heart torn in two, out of the blue, I  found you”, they end eloquently tangled in blue”.

On the Name Droppers “Cool Blue Shoes” they perform with considerable class and style, laced with true blues grit. Take a walk in their shoes now!

Richard Ludmerer
Contributing Editor/Making A Scene

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