New British Review!!

> Wildcat O’Halloran Band – Cougar Bait Blues 
> Dove’s Nest 7500

> “I’m too big to cry so I might as well laugh” sings Wildcat as he lists his woes on the nicely rocking opening blues, and that seems to define his approach. New York born Wildcat has fun throughout, as he remembers that a prime function of the blues is to entertain and he certainly does that on this lively album. He has a muscular guitar style, a sense of what works – listen to him tackle Magic Sam (a lovely tough cover of ‘All Your Fault’), Sam & Dave, James Hunter and Robert Johnson, none of them slavishly so – and the talent to back it up. He writes good songs (try ‘Redneck Woman’ or the title track, which will raise a smile at the very least), has an ace band with him and isn’t afraid to admit he’s old – “the old horse knows the way” – so that it is a little surprising that he is not better known outside his immediate area. Maybe this release will give him the wider exposure he certainly deserves on the evidence of this CD – he’d certainl
> y be an asset to any blues festival, I guess. 

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