British blues-rockers Black Cat Bones are remembered, when they are remembered at all, as one of Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's earliest bands. Formed in 1966 by Derek Brooks on guitar and his brother Stuart on bass, the original Black Cat Bones line-up included a talented 15-year-old Kossoff. The young band cut its teeth playing Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson covers on the London pub circuit, eventually landing a residency at the noted Marquee Club where they shared the stage with legends like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, and others.
Paul Kossoff wasn't the only future star to come up through the Black Cat Bones ranks. Free's Simon Kirke spent time in the band's drum seat, as did future Foghat guitarist Rod Price. By the time that the studio landed a deal with Decca Records, Kossoff and Kirke had flown the coop to form Free with singer Paul Rodgers, and the Black Cat Bones roster had solidified around the Brooks brothers, guitarist/songwriter Rod Price, vocalist Brian Short, and drummer Phil Lenoir. It was this version of the band that recorded their lone album, Barbed Wire Sandwich, in 1969.
Black Cat Bones' Barbed Wire Sandwich
While Black Cat Bones had been one of the more popular blues-rock outfits on the British scene circa 1967 and 1968, by the time that Barbed Wire Sandwich was released in 1970, that ship had sailed and the band's debut fell on the deaf ears of an audience moving on to the next new sound. 'Tis a shame, too, because the fates doomed a solid album of British blues-rock, featuring several of Price's original songs, to virtual obscurity. If it had been released even a year earlier, it might have found an audience among the last hangers-on of the scene and would be thought of today in a light similar to Gary Moore's Skid Row or the early Fleetwood Mac albums.
Barbed Wire Sandwich cranks it up from song one; "Chauffer" is a Cream-styled dinosaur stomp of heavy blues amperage that sounds like any half-dozen Jack Bruce songs with a fat bass line, low-throated vocals, and Rod Price's scorching six-string work. "Death Valley Blues" mines a similar vein, the song a crackling bonfire of wiry fretwork, deliberate martial drumbeats, throbbing bass, and bluesy vocals. Black Cat Bones tries its hand at a Canned Heat-styled boogie-rock thing with Champion Jack Dupree's rollicking "Please Tell My Baby," the song's driving rhythms threaded throughout with a taut guitar line while studio engineer Robin Sylvester lays down some "superb bad-rock piano" pounding in the bottom of the mix.
An odd choice of a cover tune – jazz diva Nina Simone's "Four Women" – is afforded respect with a claustrophobic mix of a subtle, nuanced performance that is atypical for the band's blustery trademark sound. It is Price's original songs, however, that point the way towards what may have been Black Cat Bones' future musical direction. "Coming Back" is a lively Chicago blues-styled raver featuring Short's spry vocals and a crystal tone for Price's energetic guitarplay. "Sylvester's Blues," named for the aforementioned Tangerine Studios engineer, starts out as a smoky country-blues number before exploding into a fiery rocker. "Good Lookin' Woman" is a strong blues-rock steamroller that sounds like the love child of Cream and Free.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Some four decades down the line, it's really impossible to say what may have happened if Black Cat Bones had been afforded a proper break. IF they'd recorded a year earlier, IF Kossoff had remained with the band, IF the British blues-rock scene hadn't fizzled out...well, maybe Black Cat Bones could have been stars. Still, Barbed Wire Sandwich is a solid album that shows a still-young, though seasoned line-up with a lot of potential. If the crew had hung around for album two, it might have been a world-beater....
As it was, however, Price and Short took off for greener pastures when it became apparent that the release of Black Cat Bones' debut album would be delayed, and with Brunning Sunflower Blues Band vocalist Peter French and his cousin, guitarist Mick Halls in tow, the Brooks brothers changed the band's name to Lead Hound, and tossed the entire blues-rock aesthetic into the trash can in favor of a psychedelic-rock sound. True to form, Leaf Hound recorded a single album, the obscure but highly-collectible Growers of Mushroom, before breaking up entirely in 1971. For fans of 1960s-era British blues-rock, however, Barbed Wire Sandwich is one worth adding to your collection. (BGO Records, released February 9, 2010)
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