Gotta Move On
Blue Healers
From the new EP Astro Blues
Blue Healers: Transmissions
I like everything about this album! The first thing I liked about it is the packaging of the CD (yes, I’m still into CDs, but it is also available as a download for more modern folks). Great, slightly spooky front and back covers, nice “making of” shots on the inside. I like the title, “Transmissions.” Some of these tunes have an otherworldly, “psychedelic” feel (their word for it, and I agree) that, for me, hearkens back to the great Bay Area psychedelic bands of the 60’s - Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe and the Fish perhaps. Influences from folk and country music, blues, and even twangy California beach music were evident then, and they are evident here and now just as well. Let’s sit down and write some music with no prescriptions, no preconceptions. Just let it flow.
The album opens up with the plaintive, minor keyed song, “Vultures,” Singer/bass player Diane Forsyth’s gypsy voice set off by Don Forsyth’s sustained, moaning guitar (perhaps via an E-Bow, used to such good effect by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour). The mood brightens with “Holy Matrimony,” up next, a sort of country blues with Diane sounding like she’s singing through a harp microphone and Don offering a nice sliding mix of National acoustic and electric guitars. This tune looks to be a live crowd pleaser if the video on the Healer’s website is an indication (see this and others at bluehealers.net).
One of my favorites, “Be in the Moment,” follows - sounds indeed like having a moment with your yoga teacher, after class and after a few hits of PNW’s finest! The look inward continues with a jungian search for the “Ocean in Me” - “Walking to the river til I touch hands with the ocean in me…” We’ve all spent time on that search I think. “Lucky” brings Don Forsyth to the front, singing in a contented sort of way, with a shimmering electric solo - Don shows lot of bandwidth on this collection; guitar like we like to hear!
Sunfair Road is a romantic, folky kind of fingerpicking tune, followed by “Empty Roads,” a dark, David Lynch kind of desert song, with great Ventures-style guitars. Diane can surely get spooky when she wants to, like here - and the music is a perfect compliment.
“The Last Safety Meeting” is a lovely, country-flavored lament for a friend that I found moving, lilting vocal over rippling chords, and here’s that sliding, sailing lead guitar again. “And I still have the strap you gave, it’ll hold my guitar steady ’til I’m gone.” I’ve got a strap like that on my bass - been there for over 50 years. Beautiful.
The song “Transmissions” closes out the set with a deeper mystery, and some advice - “You can get what you want, if you know what it is.” More great guitar, bass and drums roll in after awhile to take the song, and the album, home.
It’s been a decade since I reviewed the Forsyths and company’s last outing, “Town Hall Brawl,” and it’s been a pleasure to reconnect with this unique, creative duo and the songs they make together.
Review by Mark Dalton
Washington Bluesletter July 2023
From the new EP Astro Blues
From the new album Transmissions
From the upcoming album Transmissions