Mike Guldin - Tumblin

MIKE GULDIN - TUMBLIN

CONTEMPORARY BLUES
LABEL: BLUE HEART
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 18, 2022

The legendary Willie Nelson famously sang ”the life I love is making music with my friends,” and Bucks County guitarist Mike Guldin has been living by that axiom for over 45 years. The leader of the two-time International Blues Challenge finalists, Rollin’ & Tumblin,’ has acquired a rich network of friends, who have appeared as special guests on his albums with latest release “Tumblin’” following that same formula of a collaborative musical funhouse.

The ambitious collection of thirteen original songs and two tried and true covers runs the gamut of style from rock to country, blues to soul, recorded at seven different studios by over a dozen players. Guldin and songwriting partner and co-producer Bill Sharrow (Black Cat Studio, Spring Mount, PA), invited acclaimed Philadelphia area musicians - Mikey Junior, Roger Girke, Will Hodgson, Craig Thatcher, and Kevin Vannoy - to sit in with the band along with special guests Kevin McKendree, James Pennebaker, Lewis Stephens, and Luis Mora, each adding unique spice to the eclectic music mix.
The sizzling instrumental title track ‘Tumblin’’ opens the show, by paying tribute to their musical heroes. The herky-jerky shuffle ‘Sad And Lonely,’ features fine barrelhouse piano from McKendree on a classic tale of a man done wrong. The Taj Mahal standard “She Caught The Katy,” is given a southern rock treatment with greasy slide guitar from Craig Thatcher. Mikey Junior steps up to the mic joining Guldin in singing the praises of their favorite watering hole during the swampy boogaloo ‘Twisted Tail.’ Pennebaker drops in authentic pedal steel on the honky-tonk anthem ‘Alabama Pines,’ celebrating the laid-back life in the country. The horn driven ‘Raise A Ruckus,’ is a dose of the Muscle Shoals sound with Vannoy delivering a Bobby Keys’ salutation on his tenor sax.

Radio Single: 4. Twisted Tail

Guldin flips the old expression, “unlucky at cards lucky in love,” on its head for the swinging ‘House Of Cards,’ and has a little fun creating a blues limerick on the jaunty rhumba ‘That’s All She Wrote.’ There is plenty of pickin’ and grinnin’ on the singalong roots rocker, ‘You Just Can’t Lose,’ and Guldin declares his love on the sentimental ballad ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is.’ Hot horn jabs and a layer of Hammond B3 make the groovin’ ‘Sweet Thing,’ a soul stew. The folk infused advisory ‘Check Yourself,’ features tasty mandolin and harmonica from Will Hodgson, leader of the veteran Pennsylvania group, The Mighty Manatees. Guldin takes his cues from the
great political satirist Mark Russel for his comical rebuke ‘One Percent.’ Mickey Junior returns to jam with the band on classic twelve bar chestnut ‘Key To The Highway,’ before the acoustic instrumental ‘Waterfall,’ with its shimmering guitars, closes the set. The joy Mike Guldin and his friends had making “Tumblin’” is felt and heard on every track of the album. Rick J Bowe

WEBLINKS
OS: www.mikeguldin.com

For more information: Betsie Brown, Blind Raccoon, betsie@blindraccoon.com