Tas Cru: You Keep the Money

"This ain't your mama and daddy's blues, no. It ain't no Son House..."

For his fifth release of original material, guitarist Tas Cru explores every blues nook and cranny there is. An even dozen songs provides Cru with the creative fodder to display the contemporary funk of the title piece, to the minor-key blues of "A Month of Sundays" arriving at the church sounds of "A Little More Time" and the blues-balladry of "Holding on to You." Cru is a student of every blues style to emerge after the great Delta migration north. He is well studied and well taught.

Like the ubiquity of blues styles, Cru's guitar playing has the chameleon ability to morph from a sinewy Robert Cray tone to a fat and sassy Buddy Guy roar. His acoustic guitar soloing is muscular and full-bodied, as on "Bringing out the Beast." Cru intelligently blends his double-Keyboard attack, never overwhelming one keyboard with the other. It provides a solid ground sound to his band that can offer the variety foundations necessary to accommodate Cru's roaming styles.

"Take Me Back to Tulsa" recalls the muse that is the late JJ Cale. Cru captures the dry and windy terrain of the area in the song's introduction before launching into the brother of Don Williams-by- way-of-Eric-Clapton's "Living on Tulsa Time." The disc closes with a country rounder, "Thinking How to Tell Me Goodbye." Cru proves a very capable musician steeped in the vernacular of the blues.