Those of us who can’t get enough of a thunderous blues groove are guaranteed to have a good time with the 2019 record from Izzie’s Caravan, Leo’s Guitar, and I don’t think I’m the only critic saying so. Comprised of four songs built on the back of blue-hued harmonies and beats that could cause an earthquake at the right volume, Leo’s Guitar doesn’t waste any time digging its sharp rhythm into our speakers in “Two in the Bush,” its opening track. At under three minutes in total length, it wouldn’t appear – at first – like this introductory tune could pack the hearty punch that it does, but as anyone who knows blues-rock is aware, looks can be deceiving in this genre. “Two in the Bush” clobbers us with a ferocious melody that gains steam as we get deeper into the song. Its guitars are monolithic, while the incendiary tempo they follow is enough to start a wildfire in the middle of a rainforest. It’s as potent a mood-setter as we could ask for at the start of this bold extended play, but far from the only track worth writing home about.
URL: https://izziescaravan.com/track/1975618/leo-s-guitar
“Dorian’s Lament” is the most experimental song on the record, but while its construction bears more in common with mainstream rock than it does the blues-heavy style of the other material here, it isn’t enough to make it an odd bedfellow in the tracklist at all. Beside the slothful “Lightnins-A-Howlin’,” it’s got a heck of a lot more cosmetic kick, and despite their differences the two compositions are equally multilayered in the grander scheme of things. While there’s an argument to be made that Izzie’s Caravan are going out of their way to make all of the content presented in this disc somewhat different in aesthetical structure, everything has a certain familial bond with the foundations of American blues. “Lightnins-A-Howlin’” creeps out of the shadows with a menacing howl that gets under our skin and slowly evokes as physical a reaction from our hips as it does raw emotion from our hearts. This isn’t the kind of music you find just browsing the FM dial – Leo’s Guitar is untainted blues-rock of the best strain.
The title cut in this soon to be classic-record from Izzie’s Caravan is perhaps its greatest statement piece, and though it doesn’t have any lyrics (nor the gentle vocals that convey them here), it could be the most endearing work on the EP. If you’ve got an extra twelve minutes to spend in the near future, I highly recommend checking out Leo’s Caravan, as it just might be one of the most well-rounded blues offerings to debut out of the underground in the last two years. There’s still a lot of room for this band to keep coming into their own, but you don’t have to be a professional critic like myself to pick up on the wealth of experience they’re bringing into the studio with them in this studio outing. I can’t speak for the world at large, but I hope this group sticks around for a long time to come.
Troy Johnston