Blues Rock Review smouldering atmospheric review “10,000 Feet Below”

“10,000 Feet Below is the latest album from Detroit singer Eliza Neals and her guitar-toting consigliere Howard Glazer, and finds the pair harnessing an array of guest musicians in sessions spanning numerous studios but still producing a coherent collection of songs.

Opener “Cleotous” is an acoustic twanger with a field holler feel to warm things up, but most of what follows has a more modern blues rock vibe. Neals’ vocal delivery is strong throughout, as one might expect of someone operatically trained, demonstrating a good range and good phrasing. The following “Another Lifetime” is slow, smouldering and typically atmospheric, while “Burn The Tent Down” has a strutting rhythm and vocal to match, bolstered by a crunching, meaty guitar riff and a satisfying, wailing solo from Glazer.

Elsewhere, “You Ain’t My Dog No More” takes a classic blues riff in the vein of Elvis’s “Trouble,” and adds some tasty, grinding slide guitar, with Neals essaying a blues stutter just to enter into the spirit of the enterprise. “Cold Cold Night” has a shimmering opening combining acoustic guitar and Neals’ piano, and features Johnny Winter’s right-hand man Paul Nelson contributing to the effective interweaving of two guitars as it progresses in well-constructed fashion. “Call Me Moonshine” has an appealing, descending riff and squealing guitar work from Glazer, while – as elsewhere – Neals fashions some subtle vocal harmonies. “Merle Dixon” pulls off the neat trick of taking a catchy riff that echoes the White Stripes’ “Ball & Biscuit,” and giving it a modern gloss of throbbing bass notes and squelchy guitar licks…“

There’s more to read but a quick note here about “Merle Dixon” above there is no bass on that song, possibly the reviewer missed the song name…

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