CeLange: New Day Comin'

Something about this CD takes me back to April 1975, specifically to a warm and sunny afternoon when my college cohorts and I decided to blow off philosophy class. As I remember it, we anchored some speakers in the window of our second-floor dorm room, grabbed a frisbee and some beers, and blasted Delaney and Bonnie, Cream, Robin Trower, the Allmans, Little Feat and various other blues-rock bands until well after dark. It doesn't sound very exciting, but I recall it as one of the few perfect days of my life.

CeLange sounds like the kind of band we frisbee-tossing longhairs would have listened to on the quad back in 1975. I may be middle-aged and a bit too respectable now, but I haven't lost my taste for crunching blues-based rock. New York City's CeLange delivers a classic-sounding brand.

The group's name is derived from the surnames of its co-leaders, guitarist Gary Celima and flautist Sue Lange. It's a bit unusual to find a blues-rock band co-led by a flautist, but truth be told, the flute interludes are few and far between here. Fortunately Ms. Lange is a sexy singer who sounds like a less sleepy version of Deborah Harry. Furthermore, Celima plays scorching blues guitar, and the two rhythm sections that appear here are both highly capable.

Favorites include a fiery version of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," a melodic and lyrically inventive blues reverie called "Change My Ways," and the title track, which rocks out with an attitude. Celima is a bad-ass guitarist similar to Jimmy Thackery. Throw in Lange's heartfelt vocals, and this is a tough-minded, raw-rocking blues band from The Big Apple, a city not normally noted for its blues.

I hear CeLange is great in a live setting, so I intend to keep my eyes and ears on them.