Hubcap Music

The Californian bluesman’s fifth album doesn’t mess about. Following the sound of an engine revving up, opening track ‘Down on the Farm’ hurtles along like a rural Iggy and the Stooges. But this is just the first of a few digressions from his usual blues template. There’s the straight country of ‘Purple Shadows’ (complete with sublime lap-steel guitar courtesy of Fats Kaplin) and the delightful banjo and mandolin-centred ballad ‘Over You’, which brings to mind the late, great Ronnie Lane. Both songs display Steve’s not-always-apparent skills as a sensitive singer-songwriter. But the biggest change in direction is saved for the last track. The gospely Stones-like epic ballad ‘Coast is Clear’ leaves behind bare-bones guitar and dirt-raising drums for elegiac Hammond organ, bold brass and soulful female backing vocals. And it’s a great number to go out on.

The title of the album derives from the pleasure Steve clearly derives from making his own guitars out of whatever comes to hand. The instrument in question uses two back-to-back hubcaps as its sound-box and a garden hoe’s handle as its fretboard (it looks not unlike a Malian ngoni). It’s also a neat metaphor for what is essentially a gear shift into, er, a more ‘garage rock’ sound. Overall what’s most moving about this cohesive yet varied album is the fact that this 71-year-old musician is still hungry and still reinventing himself despite his core love of junkyard blues. Hubcap Music is up there with his best work.