Blues Travels Fast Songs

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Labor of Love sets the mood for Blues Travels Fast, dealing with leaving home to follow a dream, only to wake up one day to realize you’re caught up in just paying the bills. You never did it for the money, because you never have any. You do it because you believe in yourself. The song features an eerie slide intro, plus stunning solos from Quentin Ware on trumpet and Richard Griffin on sax.

Hopelessly in Love features Miranda Louise on vocals with Holloway on a song with a contemporary R&B feel, while My Kind of Woman lets Kenny Zarider show off his barrelhouse piano style on a straight shuffle. Holloway adds a powerful but sparse guitar solo, making every note count on a song he wrote about his wife, Melissa. Blues Travels Fast has a certain darkness to the feel. It features Zarider’s nasty organ behind Holloway’s guitar in a song that talks about big business and big bosses who have little regard for the working folks.

Holloway still misses his Red Thunderbird. He dedicates this fun up-tempo boogie to Bill Elliott, with slide coming at you from the get-go and a Johnny Winter style solo. I Need Somebody takes you to church, offering a gospel blues feel with James Brown influenced horns and church choir background vocals from Miranda Louise. Holloway heard this song in a gospel setting. He takes a respectful and laid back approach on his guitar solo for emphasis in this desperate cry of love.

Holloway offers a tribute to Albert King in King of the Blues, a happy up-tempo number complete with clean guitar throughout. He stays true to the King, playing with his fingers only, no pick. His slide solo on What Are We Fighting For is his tribute to Sonny Landreth. The powerhouse drum and bass drive the song, which has a voodoo chile effect and a Neville Brothers feel.

Chucki Burke’s unique shuffle rhythm and a driving bass permeate She’ll Drive You Out of Your Mind. I’m in Love With That Girl is a straight Texas shuffle. Nothing fancy, just a straight-ahead boogie and a real gas to play. The legendary Delbert McClinton influenced Holloway’s style. That echo shows through on Designated Fool, with a walking bass, shuffling drums, boogie-woogie piano, solid guitar, and Holloway’s soulful vocals.

Ten Most Wanted, a light-hearted boogie with a ZZ Top feel, features lots of tasty slide, complete with siren effects, and a driving rhythm. Top-notch horn arrangements from Quentin Ware and Richard Griffin drench the funky Cruisin’ for a Bluesin’, featured on a recent compilation with cuts from the Nighthawks, Kenny Neal, and Debbie Davies. Holloway does the only cover on the album, Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, as an instrumental. His version has a certain darkness, a haunting quality to it. It was recorded in a single take by three guys playing with the lights turned down low to give it that rainy feeling.

The Sun Come Up This Morning came to Holloway as he "was sitting with my Dobro, practicing some slide licks with the sun shining through the window. All of a sudden the clouds just started rolling in. So did the words – the sun come up this morning, then the rain just washed it down." He cut it old style, in a bathroom hallway. (Gibson created a left-handed Dobro especially for Holloway. And he had input into the design of the ES336 he plays, the first left-handed model the company ever made.)

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