Music Review // Committee of Vultures "Everybody Wants The Blues" (Jersey Delta Records)

 Please Note: This album is scheduled to be released in early 2022.  When it is officially released in full, this link will be updated.   For now, please enjoy this video for "Dressed To Get Naked":

The music of Committee of Vultures can feel very much like the lyrics in that sometimes it can feel better than others, but overall the theme remains constant throughout this album and in that regard I think it is to be experienced.   With twelve tracks, "Everybody Wants The Blues" also just feels like if it was released as a record it would be a double LP because it just has that sort of girth behind it.  

At first, with the song "Lightning Struck The Fairgrounds", there is this element which is somewhere between Led Zeppelin and Alabama Shakes, which I really enjoy.  There is a big keys solo and the singing is just huge.   It just really makes you feel it.   On the second song- which is the titular track- it can sound a bit more like Tom Petty musically but that old driving rock n roll sound vocally.  This also comes through on the third song, with a harmonica and Randy Newman-like vocals.   

"Dressed To Get Naked" (which has a music video) is somewhat of a Christmas song and it's just a fun song that I do enjoy.   "Across The Thorny Country" comes back with this western feel and between that, the horns and other factors this just goes off into various forms of classic rock n roll more than just being the blues.   It is a lot to process, from song to song, but if you have the time and desire to do so, it can be quite worthwhile.

While a song such as "Lightning Struck The Fairgrounds" can feel like a storyteller type of song in terms of lyrics, some of the songs can fall off track, such as "Terrible Driver".   There is a feeling of Tom Waits to this album though- not just musically (and vocally) at times, but the way the lyrics seem to be along the same lines of telling a story albeit sometimes a bit absurd.   This is, in a strong sense, an album which is also good to listen to if you are on a long roadtrip as it can help the time pass.