Eric Street Band - The Route to The Blues

Styles : Blues Rock

Released : 2009

01 - All I Wanted

02 - The Wrong Road

03 - The Habit

04 - Mr. Fat Cat

05 - I Need A Lover

06 - Sweet Cocaine

07 - Reconsider Baby

08 - Ride with Me

09 - The Reality Show

The name of the band comes from a street in East London. Dennis was up in London in a traffic jam on the Mile End Road when he looked up and saw a sign saying Eric Street.That was it, the name of the band.

 Dennis met Neil when The Southside Blues Band went in to No Machine Studios to record some demos. Dennis asked Neil if he would help him produce a song as a tribute to a man who had helped the band.

 The association didn't stop at one song and with three albums under his belt and spending most of his time in the studio, Dennis thought it best to disband The Southside Blues Band.

 With similar musical tastes, Dennis and Neil decided to get some like-minded musicians together to play some of their favourite blues songs.They decided to get some gigs and as an experiment record one of them just to see what it sounded like. It turned out so well that they decided to release an album of the material.

 The Route To the Blues followed this as the bands first studio album, acclaimed by Blues Matters magazine as " mature, polished and well produced."

 The next album, "The Journey" received great reviews, Blues in Britain said,"The Journey is a masterpiece of punchy, tobacco stained blues rock."

 Looking at the personnel, this is presumably some kind of offshoot of the well known Reading based Southside Blues Band. I would have to say that this is the most mature, polished and well produced piece of material I have heard thus far from vocalist and co-writer of eight of the nine featured tracks, Dennis Siggery.

 Only nine tracks, but, with a playing time of over fifty minutes, its good value. For the most part it’s slow to medium paced and fairly gritty, contemporary stuff, all dominated with an earthy vibrato vocal style that reminds you of a certain Roger Chapman. Also on his best form is fellow scribe and lead guitarist Neil Saddler.

 The album title could be a bit misleading to some. Although there is undoubtedly a Blues influence to the album, much of the music has moved into a more mainstream position. As well as a handful of songs concerning relationships, we have a bit of social commentary on drugs, with ‘The Habit’ and ‘Sweet Cocaine’; a little political jibe with ‘Mr Fat Cat’; and a swipe at TV in ‘The Reality Show’.