The Mannish Boys do all the right moves in blues. The band celebrate five years in motion with the release of Double Dynamite, sharing the birthday candles with the label that was created as a home for the band’s music, Delta Groove. With anniversaries and touring in full swing, stretching 
and tearing out in time to record has caused The Boys to have trouble with some decisions. For their new album effort, the opposing forces needed to find a common ground. Will it be Blues or Soul? To completely remove stress from otherwise even pace, The Mannish Boys made their decision and the result is Double Dynamite, two discs featuring Atomic Blues on one side and Rhythm & Blues Explosion on the other.
Disc #1 takes aim and hits the mark with ‘Atomic Blues’. Spreading the sound over two discs allows the Mannish Boys to offer a place at the tune table to all friends asking “can I jump in there?” Mud Morganfield and Jackie Payne climb into vocals, Elvin Bishop plugs in his guitar and Rod Piazza fetches his harp for Disc 1 and those names just begin to chip away at the guests nametags. New vocalist Sugarray Rayford works tracks by Son House (“Death Letter”), Sonny Boy Williamson (“Elevate Me Mama”), Otis Spann (“The Hard Way”) and Willie Dixon (“Bloody Tears”). James Harman jumps on board for backing vocals on The Mannish Boys take on James’ “Bad Detective”.
Disc #2 puts the beat to the mood and bursts open with “Rhythm and Blues Explosion”. The
guitarist must have been lined around the block for sessions with Kid Ramos, Elvin Bishop, Nathan James and Junior Watson tuning for the R&B portion of The Mannish Boys Double Dynamite program. The album falls back to the 1950’s songs making inroads in U.S. jukeboxes. “That Dood It” channels The Cadets’ “Stranded in the Jungle”, “Why Does Everything Happen to Me” reaches deep with morning after horns and dialed in guitars lathered in scratchy fuzz and “Later On” bumps along a road lined with classic Ray Charles deliveries and Raylettes harmonies. The Mannish Boys re-make James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” into a funk driven monster that drips hot with its own perspiration, James Cotton’s “West Helena Blues” and William Bell’s ode to the glass half empty, “Born Under A Bad Sign”.
More on The Mannish Boys and Delta Groove can be found on the band's website. Danny McCloskey
{auto displayheight="275" height="450" width="400" plthumbs="true" shuffle="false" repeat="list" pbgcolor="#000000" pfgcolor="#cccccc", phicolor="#0099ff" showstop="true" showeq="false"}TheMannishBoysDouble.xml{/auto}
.jpg)
