MAY 2008 ONLINE EDITORIALS

Sammy Dee - Business Is Business

album cover

By Chris Galis

Take a guy named Sammy Dee, stick him in Louisiana for a while, and give him a Fender Strat, then move him up to Colorado – and what do you get? You get Sammy Dee’s latest release called Business is Business. It’s all there. From the standard 12-bar, to the standard bop, to the standard blues strut, Sammy Dee has created a surprisingly refreshing traditional blues record.
What makes this record enjoyable is Sammy Dee’s guitar playing – which I can easily compare to a more rounded and grounded younger cousin to (forgive me SRV!) SRV. His lyrics are benign, as if he composed them to accompany his plethora of songs. With track titles such as “Low Down Woman”, “Moonshine”, “Bop Till I Drop”, and “Strat Struttin’”, the listener knows what to expect, but for some reason it doesn’t matter.
On the track “Business is Business”, Sammy has found himself at the mercy of a world trying to bring him down, and the only way to fight it off seems to be through a polished blues riff that weaves in and out of evocative soloing. The beauty in his music is that he never tries to do too much with the blues formula. “Business is Business” clocks in at just over the three-minute mark.
Another key performance comes in the form of a delicious instrumental track named “Moonshine” – though I’ve never had any moonshine that sounded this good. It opens with bright chord progressions over a solid rhythm section. At times SD’s playing is quiet and brooding and at other times jubilant and uplifting – but always sensible.
Then there was “Bop Til I Drop”. Normally, I would be adamantly against a song that has the lines: “I’m not gonna stop, I’m gonna bop till I drop”. But SD’s simplistic lyrics about bopping are endearing to me. He becomes the listener’s little blues pet. This track is also emblematic of another one of Sammy’s strengths: his visceral love for the blues. He makes the listener love it as much as he does. By the end of the record, you’re body is grooving to the wild “Strat Struttin’”, while your mind is still thinking about “Bop Til I Drop”.
Yes, the tunes are famously outdated and overplayed, and yes, the lyrics are nothing ground breaking, but Sammy Dee has created something that touches the very soul of anyone who has ever known the beauty of the blues.