The Electric Blues Reaction

The Electric Blues Reaction hail from the Kington area in the Welsh Marches and are a popular attraction on the still thriving and surprisingly high quality local live music circuit. The group consists of drummer/vocalist Nick Smith, guitarist Troy Redfern and by bassist Stuart MacDonald.  Smith’s ability to sing and drum simultaneously and to do each with equal conviction is impressive in itself even if it does leave the band without an orthodox front man.

The Electric Blues Reaction sees Smith, Redfern  and McDonald form a hard hitting electric blues trio. With the exception of Son House’s blues standard “John The Revelator” the material is comprised entirely of original material in the blues/rock vein penned by Redfern and Smith. There’s something defiantly old fashioned about the trio but for all the retro trappings they still exhibit an agreeably contemporary rock edge.

EBR play high octane blues rock influenced by Freddie King, Elmore James, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix and a host of other bluesmen, both black and white. Indeed bassist MacDonald is a veteran of the great 60’s British Blues Boom and was a member of the fondly remembered (and since reformed) group Killing Floor. He also backed blues legends such as Freddy King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Otis Spann back in the day as well as appearing with Peace, a band fronted by future Free vocalist Paul Rogers. There’s a hard won rawness and authenticity about EBR’s work as typified by their “Wrong Side Of The Tracks”, a blistering slice of slide driven blues rock introduced by locomotive noises and featuring Smith’s raw vocals. From the pen of Redfern it’s heavy stuff as is “So Long”, another Redfern song.  

Reproduced from a review by Ian Mann.