01 August 2019

Bluebird Review’s marvelous ‘Sweet or Mean’ review

“Able to create the right bridge between traditional and contemporary Blues and Blues/Rock, thanks to an extraordinary vocal ability and to a songwriting often delivering intense, cutthroat lyrics, it was almost inevitable that Neals would want to work with a guitarist and a tried-and-true giant of modern Blues/Rock like Popa Chubby.”

No doubt, somewhere after all of these years I would find a bridge lol. Marvelous to find this bridge after writing so many different songs some published some unpublished. Many of the songs I have performed live sometimes in front of large crowds, the feedback is unreal. “Living with yo mama” for example I have been performing for over six years, just search youtube to see the different reactions.

“The outcome of such strong combustion of Blues badassery has resulted in a high-octane Blues fuelled EP called ‘Sweet Or Mean,’ a body of work that includes some of the finest work to date, for the artist from Detroit.”

Writing new music at times can be hard if the direction for me is wrong. I have written so many songs that ended up scrapped or eventually blended into a new song. Lyrics here, ideas over there, a piano riff and somehow they come together into one final song or two. When you get marvelous “combustion” while writing can feel it right in your bones.

“The 6 tracks included in Sweet Or Mean (5 new originals all written by Neals plus an alternative take of one of the tunes) are pure Blues dynamite.”

Popa and I truly do and did vibe together in the studio, we had great musical support with the musicians and studio team. GB’s Juke Joint is pure analog heaven a place hand built to capture the lush sounds that became “Blues dynamite” Wow!

“Through Sweet Or Mean, Neals reminds us all that there may be out there a lot of excellent female Blues singers and songwriters, but almost nobody, right now, does the Blues quite like Eliza Neals does.”

Well that last quote is what I rest my case on. So many singers and so many female singers I can’t say yes “he’s right” duh what a great opinion so THANK YOU BLUEBIRD REVIEWS