Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo are three very talented young men from Madison, WI. While they are great on studio recordings, thy are something really special in front of an audience and they prove that with their recent live recording, Live Loud Harmony. The CD was recorded at The Harmony Bar in Madison in March of 2013.
The band consists of Aaron Williams on guitar, including cigar box guitar and lap steel, and lead vocals on most songs, Eric Shackleford on drums, and “Z” on bass. Between the three of them , they create a very full and exciting noise!
The CD starts out with “Boom Boom,” with Williams’ virtuoso cigar box guitar over Shack’s pounding beat and Z’s frenetic bass getting the crowd in the mood from the very beginning. It should get the listener’s pulse quickened, too! They then add a little rockabilly to the mix with “Sick and Tired,”
The next song, “Supper at Night,” is a new number with Z on vocals and Williams providing some tasty guitar solos. It is followed by another new song, “Ramblin,” which is another fast and furious number to keep the place jumping.
“My Turn” slows things down just a little bit and veers more to the blues side than the rock. Williams has a chance to show off some serious guitar licks on the solo here.
My favorite song on the CD is the light-hearted warning, “Red Headed Women,” in which Z warns about those redheads who “get you every time.” It’s a fun song that gets the crowd involved and it also features some tasty slide guitar. It is followed by the blues romp, “No Time For Love,” and then Z takes the vocal for the danceable “It Is What It Is.”
The first cover on the CD is next, as the band takes on The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.” It’s a really good cover that heats up as it progresses. Instead of the menace of Jim Morrison’s vocal, though, this one actually makes the roadhouse sound like a fun place to go!
The title track from the latest studio CD, “It Ain’t Easy,” is straight-ahead rock and morphs into a blistering version of “The Star Spangled Banner” that is Hendrix by way of Williams and a psychedlic “Gypsy” to bring the CD to a close on a very high note.
The CD illustrates clearly that Aaron Williams and The Hoodoo are a great band to see live. The energy they project is something you want to be part of if you can! In the meantime, this CD is a tasty sample that does a pretty good job of letting you close your eyes and imagine yourself there so that you can feel a bit of the magic, and that is what live albums are meant to do, after all. Get it. You’ll have yourself a “real good time,” to quote “Roadhouse BLues.”
