The Road We're On (CD - 2003)

Personnel: Sonny Landreth (vocals, guitar); Steve Conn (keyboards); Dave Ranson (bass); Mike Burch, Brian Brignac (drums); Danny Kimball, Joe Broussard (rubboard); Tony Daigle. R.S. Field (percussion); Marc Broussard (background vocals).

Producers: R.S. Field, Sonny Landreth, Tony Daigle.

Recorded at Electric Comoland, Lafayette, Louisiana.

THE ROAD WE'RE ON was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Personnel: Sonny Landreth (vocals, guitar); Steve Conn (keyboards); Brian Brignac, Mike Burch (drums); Joseph "Zydeco Joe" Mouton, Danny Kimball (rub-board); R.S. Field, Tony Daigle (percussion); Marc Broussard (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: R.S. Field; Tony Daigle.

Recording information: Electric Comoland, Lafayette, LA.

Photographer: Jack Spencer.

Following a few years after Levee Town, an album tightly focused on a specific place and time, Landreth dedicates The Road We're On to the more intangible magic of the blues. The music this time scans a vast panorama, from the Texas shuffle of "All About You" and zydeco pulse of "Gone Pecan" through the tub-thump beat of some Bayou dive on "Juke Box Mamma." Aside from a couple of cuts on which he plays standard guitar, Landreth fills this album with wizardly slide work: A shimmering lick at the end of "A World Away" provides the most gorgeous sonic moment, though his extended jam on the environmental call to arms "Natural World" sustains a high level of intensity through several choruses. On most of these tracks Landreth performs in a raw trio setting, almost all the time recording live; on "Hell at Home" he even keeps the scratch vocal, rather than overdub a fresh version, because the four-beat groove, reminiscent of "Walking Blues" on Paul Butterfield's East-West, is so in-the-pocket. With more focus on the playing and less on studio polish than he's shown in years, Landreth affirms his mastery in all the feels of The Road We're On and, more importantly, reminds listeners that bottomless power still lives in the body of the blues. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk

Guitar whiz Sonny Landreth hails from the Mississippi/Louisiana region, and his ability to bridge swamp rock, blues, and zydeco is a reflection of his home area's rep as a wonderful melting pot of roots music. THE ROAD WE'RE ON affirms Landreth's ability to tap into this well of inspiration, and with slide in hand the charter member of John Hiatt's Goners puts on a dazzling display. "All About You" finds him using a growling guitar to shape a Stevie Ray Vaughan-flavored shuffle, the snappy "Juke Box Mama" switches to some finely plucked steel-string work, and "Gone Pecan" chugs along convincingly with zydeco serving as the main source of inspiration.

Although the lyrics on this entirely self-penned effort tend to be a bit on the light side, Landreth's mastery of the six-string provides to be a sufficient to carry him through. Be it slow blues ("A World Away"), faux swing (the title track), or jammy southern rock ("Gemini Blues"), Landreth mastery of his instrument makes this album quite the satisfying listen. minimize