Aynsley Lister - Upside Down

British Blues ace Ansley Lister has been steadily building a successful career for several years now, and is one of the key members of a new generation of UK blues guitarists. With hundreds of live shows under his belt and five previous albums to his name, the advance publicity on this album was that Ashley was making a real stylistic departure from the more straight ahead blues of his earlier albums.

AOG's resident nutter, Scottish uber fusion maestro Nick Andrew raved about Ansleys live show in several months ago, so I was keen to hear 'Upside Down'. Also, the fact is that Blues does seem to be 'cool' again - in the States John Mayer is a genuine superstar, and artists such as Joe Bonamassa and Derek Trucks are gaining critical and public adulation. The question is: has the UK a viable contender?

Overview!

'Find My Way Home' opens proceeding with a stirring riff based rocker and from Ansley's first lead fill you know this guys firing on all cylinders: a great woody tone, scintillating vibrato: the works. Great vocals as well, his voice is maturing well conjuring up images of a smoke filled blues club, with a Bourbon on ice ready to go...

'Getaway' starts in more of a singer songwriter vein before some slide heralds a classic rock style riff, and the song settles well into a mid paced groove. Again you will notice a great vocal delivery. A tight and economical solo: a bit more Clapton-esque than some of his other more Texas Blues orientated playing here.

Ballad time with ‘Always Tomorrow', a lazy back beat, some blues jazz chords, some Hendrix-esque double stops and a touching emotive solo with another great tone and sparse phrasing round this track up nicely.

'Ice I'm Upon' is a more up tempo song, with a nice mid paced riff, nice dynamics and a great 'summer radio hit' chorus hook: a classy song, with a very mid western vibe. A good, melodic solo here, and a rousing finale to. Great stuff!

Track five ‘Beautiful (Keina's Song)' is a paean to his daughter: lots of gentle acoustics and some well judged vocal melodies, again this track is more evidence of Anysley moving away from the basic blueprint of blues that his earlier work followed.

‘Wherever I Am' has hooks aplenty and a nice chordal and double-stop based rhythmic solo where the guitar is acting very much to serve the needs of the song - not gratuitous blues noodling.

‘With Me Tonight' takes back into more blues rock territory, but again the dominant element are the great vocal melodies here, and a great Cream-esque descending chord sequence all help make this one of the albums highlights. A rousing and dramatic solo with some great Stevie-esque playing adds the icing on the cake - and with lots of loud/soft dynamics this will rule live.

Next up is ‘Rain' with some altered tuning acoustics - maybe DADGAD? - and some lovely dynamics, a plaintive vocal - think maybe some of Zeps acoustic work if you want a musical reference point.

‘In The Morning' is more along the standard bluesy blueprint, and has a Stonesy/ZZ Top feel with some great slide. A good party song with a cool chorus and with backing vocals galore - some of that main riff even tips a hat at the brothers Young in AC/DC.

‘Upside Down' is an up tempo driving rocker with a treated vocal in the verse and yet more raucous guitar playing, whilst ‘Disorderly Me' has a Robin Trower-esque riff, some nicely judged Hendrixy double stops in the chorus, and again more of a Texas Blues type of approach to the solo: a stinging tone and sparse phrasing that rise and fall to create a great sense of dynamics.

‘Falling Down' closes the album with a funky riff, a driving riff, some turbo charged axework... pretty Hendrixy this one, but with another of those melodic hooks that symbolise the album throughout - and with a show stopper of a solo this is a fitting end to the album.

Conclusion

A great example of a modern blues influenced album from one of the premier new British Blues gunslingers, ‘Upside Down' proves that with some imagination and melodic nous that it is possible to successfully reinvent a genre that many have criticised as being creatively moribund. Catch him on tour and I guarantee you will have a great night with some raucous blues geetar. Buy this album and I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised at how fresh and vibrant - and good - Ansyley's take on the ‘Blues' genre is.