Slash celebrates the blues

Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz

Slash usually spends his working hours as guitarist for Guns N' Roses, but this summer he's onto very different sounds. Slash launched the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival, A Celebration of the Blues, which features Slash and a rotating cast of other musicians on the bill.

For Slash, this was an opportunity to go back to the music that spoke to him decades ago, but sometimes with a bit of a twist. He just released his second studio album, "Orgy of the Damned," the focal point of the tour.

Slash and his band played such songs as Fleetwood Mac's (Peter Green era, meaning blues-oriented) with "Oh Well," Albert King's hit "Born Under a Bad Sign," Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher" and T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday."

Slash and company were in excellent form throughout his headlining set. Wearing his trademark sunglasses and top hat, Slash may come off a bit mysterious, but that wasn't the case about his guitar licks.

Slash employed them in spades from beginning to end of the 100-minute show. Of course, he made it seem easy, and he sure seemed to enjoy this change of pace from his regular gig. There was a lot to be said about his multitudinous licks.

Some of the blues bordered on the psychedelic blues in the vision of Slash. There were a of heavy sounds. One can. be pretty sure that the originators of the some of these songs would not have imagined they would be played this way. That would especially include The Temptation's "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Great song from Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong done with a heavy sound courtesy of Slash.

As if to emphasize that, Slash closed the regular set with a very muscular take on Jimi Hendrix' "Stone Free." But Slash showed a different side with a cover of Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" as the first encore song as he played pedal steel, giving a definite country/country blues feel.

Slash didn't do any lead singing (he did help out a bit on backing vocals and talked slightly), leaving that in the capable voices of guitarist Tash Neal and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis. Neal adopted more of a rock edge to his singing (Freddie King's "Big Legged Woman"), while the big sized-personality of Andreadis, was more soulful and throaty in his vocal delivery. The rhythm section of drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Johnny Griparic did their job in anchoring the sound.

Slash brought out Keb' Mo', who preceded him on stage, for "Born Under a Bad Sign," and that was a smart move. Not only is Keb' Mo' a very worthy traditional blues singer, he also has guitar skills. One would have hoped that Robert Randolph and ZZ Ward, who were also on the bill, would have been part of an overall jam, but that wasn't the case.

Keb' Mo' served up a welcome taste of more traditional blues sound during his set. Like Slash, he gave his band room to play and dished out a bunch of good guitar licks himself.

Keb' Mo' received and deserved a good hand from the crowd with the venue only about 60 percent full.

The blues seems to draw less interest by musical fans in recent years, but with a few different prisms, Slash's S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival was indeed a celebration of the blues.