RIFF - that relentless melody that grabs you by the throat and just won't let go!
You sing it in the shower as you start your day and then again driving in your car - spanking that steering wheel as you dance down the road. It rides shotgun with you all day long and even comes to kiss you goodnight. Then in the morning, that riff is there to wake you and wants to join you for morning coffee! That is what this album is all about - that RIFF! Riffin' The Blue is a set of songs (as always with Tas Cru - original songs) each born from, and raised up on, its own melodic guitar hook - aka the RIFF
The album is produced by las who, in addition to his tried-and-true studio stalwarts, enlists solid help from a few others, most notably Mike Zito (courtesy of Gulf Coast Records) and renowned keyboardist, Bruce Katz. Zito puts his guitar stamp on two songs - the album's opener/title track and on the closer, Memphis Gone. Katz contributes his world-class talent on piano and organ to ten of the album's eleven songs.
The title track, Riffin' The Blue is a heavy blues-rock shuffle well-suited for the blues-rock guitar master that is Mike Zito. On this song he goes full pedal to metal riding atop las' hard-driving riff. On Brown Liquor Woman, Katz's sizzling piano solo dances a two-step with the resonator's country-blues riff. Tas opens with a tasty gospel-infused rock riff on his call-to-action Stand Up!. One More Time is led by a guitar melody befitting this impassioned ballad. In Throw It All Away. Tas weaves a hypnotic guitar lick throughout the song. The riffs then go funky for Crazy Getting In My Way and Heal My Misery followed by House of the Blues with its riff played in unison by all. Next up are two fun, feel-good songs, Let It Happen and Miss This Man (co-penned with Mary Ann). Both are songs where the vocal melody started out as a guitar line. Memphis Gone closes the album and again, this is a song whose vocal melody was born on guitar and nurtured in a fashion that inspired its heartfelt lyric. A final note: this song was chosen to close the album because everyone in the ensemble is featured in some way. The rhythm section plays with both power and grace in support of stellar keyboard work by Katz, especially his piano solo. Haunting slide guitar by Zito adds colors to the song that emboss the beautiful melancholy evoked by las' voice and the rich backing vocals.