Walking on Fire
Neal's nastily sharp guitar first scythed a path across blues America upon the release of Big News from Baton Rouge in 1987. That release and 1989's Devil Child, equally enjoyable items in the Alligator catalog demonstrated however that bluesman Raful Neal's eldest had more in mind than the same old reheated riffs. Walking on Fire has his hefty, mature vocals and alert guitar radiating earthy moods rather than flamboyant dispassion on strong material flattered (like the two earlier albums) by the soul blues production of Bob Greenlee-only this time the horns are inspired by two ex- James Brown zealots. In sharp relief are two country blues that Neal has built around poems by Langston Hughes, whose work he had embraced as a cast member of Broadway's Mule Bone.-- © Frank John Hadley 1993--From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD