The long awaited and much anticipated, release of the latest CD by America’s premier blues band, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones Featuring Little Charlie, is here…well almost. The album entitled Too Far from the Bar is slated for a September, 18^th street date. So, you will have to wait a little longer but trust me, your patience will be rewarded.

First off, a key personnel change needs to be discussed. Long time guitarist Monster Mike Welch left the band to pursue a musical partnership with vocalist and guitarist Michael Ledbetter. In fact, this dynamic duo released a fine album on the Delta Groove Music label, Right Place Right Time back in 2017. Tragically Michael Ledbetter died on January 21, 2019, of complications from epilepsy. 

By this time, Little Charlie Baty stepped in and joined up with Sugar Ray and the Bluetones. It was a perfect fit for the guitarist who had enjoyed what he called a ‘soft retirement’ from the band that bore his name. He then found out that he wasn’t all that successful at being retired. He went on the road with Mark Hummel’s Little Walter tribute tour and subsequent album Remembering Little Walter. It is where he finally met Sugar Ray Norcia for the first time. According to Charlie’s liner notes from this album, “We instantly hit it off, stylistically and personality wise.”  While waiting for this album to be released Little Charlie Baty died of a massive heart attack on March, 6^th of this year. He was 66 years old. There is no mention of his passing anywhere in the album’s beautiful six panel, digi-pack. Obviously and inexplicably, this Severn Records release had been in the can for some time.      

Let’s start by pointing out that Sugar Ray and the Bluetones have been together for 40 years. They are drummer Neil Govin, bassist Michael “Mudcat” Ward, pianist Anthony Geraci and, of course, their singer and harmonica player, Sugar Ray Norcia. All four of these gentlemen are extremely accomplished musicians in their own right. All steeped in the blues, together they make a formidable ensemble. What does a blues band sound like that has been together for forty years? There is only one way to find out and this CD is it, as this band’s long career is virtually unprecedented.

The addition of Little Charlie Baty was a wonderful move. No guitar player has a more articulate vocabulary in the various blues dialects this side of Duke Robillard. It is Robillard who produced this album. Duke even plays with Charlie on four tunes on Too Far from the Bar.

When you put together musicians of this caliber with the premier vocalist in the blues, you have really got something special. Now, all you need is good material and Too Far from the Bar has that as well and lots of it. There isn’t a clunker in this fifteen-song, sixty plus minutes of blues.

From originals written mostly by Norcia, but with great contributions from Geraci and Ward, to the carefully selected covers, everything here meshes wonderfully. The album is so well paced and sequenced that those sixty minutes fly by. There is an undercurrent of swing in these blues. Songs imbued with timeless imagery, biting satire and humor are delivered by Norcia. He has sturdy pipes and the phrasing of a master.

A song by song review of this album would just be an orgy of superlatives. Needless to say, Too Far from the Bar receives my highest recommendation. It has become a clear front runner for album of the year.

So, after six months of cancelled tours, festivals, virtually all live club and concert dates, we are all literally…too far from the bar. It is why this album is so welcome and not a moment too soon.

-  David Mac