Laurence Jones has been releasing albums since 2012 and on stage building up a rep as a stellar blues-rock guitar slinger he’s sold a shedload of albums – and has become one of the young guitarists paving the way for the next generation of blues guitarists.
Bad Luck and The Blues is the follow-up to 2022’s Destination Unknown and for this, he’s dispensed with the keyboards and returned to the power trio format of guitar, bass and drums which, he says, is “an itch I’ve wanted to scratch for ages,” and he’s given us an album which is described as blues rock with lots of very fine guitar right the way through. While it isn’t anywhere close to being as bluesy-tinged as some of his earlier albums, nonetheless it’s a fine collection of songs which’ll do his growing rep absolutely no harm at all. If anything, it’ll probably put him up there with US blues guitar men like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and John Mayer.
It’s a hard-rocking album in the style of 70’s artists like Robin Trower but with the focus on the present day. Title track ‘Bad Luck & the Blues’ opens with some fine guitar work, with tracks like ‘Take Control’ and ‘Out In The Distance’ very upbeat and rocking, while ‘I’m Gone,’ however, is slower and more powerfully performed, with Jones shredding lots of notes. ‘Don’t You Leave Me This Way’ is also slower, and with the definite feel of Robin Trowers’ ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ and including plenty of guitar histrionics.
This is an album veering more towards commercial mainstream rock, rather than the jagged elements of the rougher blues edges. This is the blues as imagined by a power trio intent on rocking up a storm. Jonesy can play, he can really play, there’s absolutely no doubt about it, but how bluesy is a guitar break that Judas Priest could easily have given you? This album has plenty of controlled and exciting playing, and Jonesy rocks along like it’s about to go out of fashion, just don’t call it the blues.
