Trio reliably deliver another set of short but sweet feelgood songs.
Handsome Jack is an exemplar of the typical three-man high-energy rock group (electric guitar, bass, and drums), and the trio attack the blues, boogie, roots rock, and occasional country soul tracks with energy and no little talent, even leaning into the swampy rock sounds of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Generally speaking, though, their influences are the Allman Bros Band, the Stones or Gov’t Mule, with whom they have shared a stage, and maybe Grand Funk Railroad or Led Zeppelin, or an amalgam of each. They could be considered a band’s band, earning praise from the likes of Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes. And the longer you listen, the more influences show themselves (see later) – and this is a band that is not afraid to play up their influences, often more than one in a single track.
The band formed in the early/mid-2000s in Lockport, in the Buffalo area of New York State and the three musicians have hardly varied from their typical power trio rock focus since that time. They consist of Jamison Passuite, guitar and vocals, Bennie Hayes, bass and vocals and Joey Verdonselli, drums and vocals, and they deliver rousing music which has given them a loyal fan base for their recorded, and perhaps more particularly, their live music, forged largely through almost constant touring and what you might call ‘giving good gig’.
Their eighth album is entitled “Barnburners”, and it highlights the band’s fine musicianship and their vocal and songwriting prowess, on a shortish package of ten songs that will no doubt please their fans. It kicks off with the title track (minus the ‘s’), a rousing Allmans/Thin Lizzy-style rocker and is followed by tracks of varying style. ‘Tonight We Ride’ sounds like Buddy Holly’s ‘Not Fade Away‘ (a Bo Diddley riff), and then ‘It’s Only Business’ is a slowed-down early-Stones loping blues-rocker, with Passuite sounding uncannily like Jagger. After an earthy version of Tony Joe White’s often-covered ‘Polk Salad Annie‘ comes an album highlight, the downbeat ‘Blue Falls Motel’ which ends with a harmonica fade-out on a solid blues song. ‘Do It! To It!‘ is a mid-paced, lyrically suggestive rocker that has some interesting call and response vocals, a fine guitar break and a slight fade-out fade back in section that adds a bit more interest. ‘I’m Hooked’ has some nice guitar riffs on a mid-tempo blues rocker. ‘Polly Molly‘ is a dead ringer for Elmore James with stinging slide guitar and Verdonselli’s drums to the fore in the mix. ‘Let’s Go Downtown‘ is a standard fast-paced rocker, and the album ends on a more mournful note with the pulsating slow blues ‘Ghost Woman‘.
Handsome Jack is a more than competent retro roots rock band and is no doubt a great live band. As with tracks on previous albums, some tracks will get a live audience jumping up and down and singing along. And they make no pretence of taking risks with their sound in a way that many of their peers have done. But, to be honest, you would have to be a hardcore rock fan to find much new in this set that hasn’t been done by them before, but that is probably the band’s ethos – keep the songs short and sweet (there are no extended or improvised solos), don’t change the basic format and the fans will keep coming back for more. But you could do worse than spend 30-odd minutes on a high-energy, well-played collection of songs that will make you feel good and which is an encapsulation of the band’s stylistic variety. It does what it says on the tin!
