Jack Broadbent – Ride

08-04-2022

Jack Broadbent (born June 15, 1988 in Lincolnshire , England) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter . He plays and writes his songs in blues and folk style. Broadbent grew up in rural England. Broadbent's influences include John Lee Hooker , Peter Green and Robert Johnson , but also Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ; but he has developed his own style. In order to be able to play the guitar in the "slide" style , he often uses a bottle neck or a " flask ". Broadbent started out as a street musician , delighting audiences with improvised pieces. One of his YouTube videos was viewed 425,000 times. He is now appearing on larger stages solo or as an opening act for Lynyrd Skynyrd , Johnny Hallyday , Bernard Allison and Robben Ford . He has had festival appearances in Glastonbury, in 2016 at the Montreux Jazz Festival and in 2018 at the Rochester Jazz Festival. The Montreux Jazz Festival announced him as "The new master of the slide guitar". Broadbent began crafting his musical chops as a youth in Lincolnshire England, where he originally started off on the drums before moving towards the guitar and songwriting. While busking in his early 20s Broadbent refined his slide guitar technique, complete with his requisite whiskey flask, which attracted fans of all ages to the young virtuosic bluesman. In 2016, the Montreux Jazz Festival hailed him as, "The new master of the slide guitar." Many musicians took note of the young luminary as well, and Ronnie Wood, Peter Frampton and others enlisted Broadbent to join them on the road. Listeners continued to engage, earning Broadbent over 10 million streams on Spotify. And while his background may be rooted in the blues and rock of classic artists like John Lee Hooker and Little Feat, the sound is distinctly his own. The songs on Ride are steeped in grit and power. The Americana vibe of "I Love Your Rock 'n' Roll" moves into the funky "New Orleans," an homage to one of Broadbent's favorite towns. "Grace" soars with a kind of front-porch spirituality, while album closer "Who Are You" offers brooding moments, depicting the ongoing journey that is life. Jack Broadbent's fifth album, "Ride", proves once again to be a genre-defying collection of finely-crafted songs with real heart and depth and a whole load of rhythm. Ian Corbridge reviews for 'Louder Than War' and fully absorbs this vibrant mix of blues, alternative rock, Americana, and folk, all underpinned with Jacks gritty blues-inspired vocals and his masterful use of the slide guitar. I think its fair to say that Jack Broadbent considers himself first and foremost as a singer/ songwriter and not as a blues guitarist, although many will quite obviously point towards the latter as a defining factor of his considerable musical talent. But this does reflect strongly in the four albums he has released to date which showcase not only the high quality of the catalogue of songs that he has built up, but also the many genres and styles of music that he has absorbed from blues, alternative rock, Americana, and folk through to a sprinkling of pop which he is certainly not ashamed to draw out. So against this background it comes as no surprise that Jack Broadbent's fifth album, "Ride", is once again a joyous meld of so many styles and rhythms, albeit this time with a distinct rock'n'roll vibe. Born and raised in rural Lincolnshire, Jack cites his father Mick as one of his biggest influences, not surprising given Mick's own prowess as a musician which included a stint in the 70's power-pop outfit Bram Tchaikovsky, as well as playing bass on this new album. Developing his own style through first playing drums in his fathers band and then moving to guitar as a means to support his growing interest in song writing, Jack's penchant for the slide guitar really started to take off through hours spent busking. But whilst he might have taken some reference back to artists such as John Lee Hooker and Little Feat, Jack was always keen to develop his own individual style of playing to feature within the songs he was writing. My own first encounter with Jack Broadbent proved once and for all that first impressions always stick when I saw him supporting Ronnie Wood in Manchester in 2019, a show covered by 'Louder Than War' here. My observation then that Jack was "a masterclass in slide and blues guitar with a great vocal delivery" certainly rings true more than ever after hearing the new album Ride and that key element of diversity is something that really sets this album apart from many of his contemporaries. The onset of the pandemic and all its ramifications stalled Jack's usual preference for writing songs on the road. He then turned his attention towards a solo acoustic project, that is until he hooked up with Quebec-based drummer and co-producer, Mark Gibson, given Jack has been living in Canada over recent years. As Jack explains "we started playing some of the more rock'n'roll stuff I had, and we couldn't deny that there was a kind of vibe happening. So, I just went full steam ahead in that direction which brought the sound of this album into focus. We built on those grooves and ended up with the rock'n'roll record I've been wanting to make for a long time". "Ride" immediately sets the tempo of the album with a deep, meaningful and intense groove alongside Jack's now trademark gritty vocal style. With the opening line he declares "We put dreams in our pockets" as he immediately takes us on a gripping rock'n'roll adventure with the stark message "ride along with me now or wait until I'm gone". Well, there is little doubt that I'm on board for this particular journey however long it lasts. Jack describes 'I Love Your Rock'n'Roll 'as "an homage to the bands that I like" as its driving rhythm underpins some mesmerising slide guitar breaks. Meanwhile New Orleans has a much more reflective tone as it opens with a delta blues style shuffle as it goes on to celebrate a city which he clearly loves as he "can't kick the fever, I'm addicted to this town". This is a city most definitely on my bucket list. 'Hard Livin'' starts as a slow melancholy blues centred around a story of love, loss and heartbreak which builds into a frenzied and dramatic climax with an extended solo which has more of a southern rock vibe. Midnight Radio has a late night feel with its more laid back and light hearted groove, infused with a whole load of swing. Jack describes this as "a song for the night owls, for the people that love their music by moonlight and stars". This is a folk-blues-jazz fusion with real feeling and he really is talking my language here. 'Baby Blue' feels like a slowed down version of Yer Blues from the Beatles' "White Album" as its strolling blues rhythm takes us through what appears to be an attempt to reconcile a broken relationship. 'Grace' is immersed in a more spiritual side of the blues in its search for freedom and a new way forward with an intense blues harmonica break which is infused with more than a sense of yearning. Final song, 'Who Are You ?', opens with a slow self-reflective and ambient mood as if in search of his inner self, before bursting into another guitar-infused driving rhythm as he continues his journey, noting that "I'm changing, changing, changing as I go". And so the song switches back and forth as the trip seems to revolve in a seemingly endless cycle leaving you wondering exactly where he will end up. Through "Ride", Jack Broadbent demonstrates once again his remarkable and almost unrivalled talent on the slide guitar which seamlessly interweaves within his deep and gritty vocal style and his masterful rhythmic grooves, all of which are underpinned by tight and metronomic drum patterns and subtle bass lines. Listening to the album from beginning to end I felt like I had been on a road trip, weaving back and forth through various emotions and there is no better storyteller than Jack Broadbent to be my guide. And with the quality of what I have just heard, I have already bought my ticket for the next leg of the journey and I cannot wait to find out where that will take me. On each album, Jack Broadbent is used to people saying, "Oh, this is a departure from your previous stuff." That's something the British-born singer, songwriter and guitarist has heard to varying degrees, over the course of his six albums to date, and is certainly fitting of his latest release, "Ride". As someone who is as connected to the quality of his relationships with people as he is to the quality of his music, rest assured he considers that a compliment. "I think there's a lot of variety on my records. This is no different," Broadbent says. "I'm really getting a sense now that this idea of genre and where you fit in is not as important as it used to be, which I think is good." Broadbent grew up in rural Lincolnshire, England. His earliest influence, his father, Mick Broadbent, plays bass on "Ride" and is a well-established musician, including a tenure with Bram Tchaikovsky. "I fell in love with music at a young age," he says, informed by the steady diet of music played around the house. His father would take Broadbent to open mic nights as a youth, and by his early teens he was playing drums in his dad's bands. Broadbent gravitated to guitar around the same time as he became interested in song writing. "Being a drummer, I tried to develop a very rhythmic approach to my guitar playing," Broadbent recalls. "What interested me was being able to hold down a groove and do some gymnastics to incorporate solos and subtle bass lines." Broadbent's slide guitar playing evolved from the busking he did during his early 20s. "It seemed to appeal to people as something that was both visually and musically exciting. This was interesting to me," Broadbent explains. "I was already playing in altered and open tunings, so when it came to using a slide I was well-versed in how those patterns worked together." He took some cues from influences such as John Lee Hooker and Little Feat, but ultimately Broadbent says, "I never really wanted to emulate anybody else's style, which is why I ended up going down a slightly more hard-hitting, brash, kind of route in my playing." Broadbent found acclaim and an audience after the Montreux Jazz Festival hailed him as, "The new master of the slide guitar." Bootsy Collins famously proclaimed him, "The real thang !" He won over more fans touring with the likes of Ronnie Wood, Peter Frampton, and other musical legends. His penchant for writing on the road ensured that there was usually an abundance of material whenever Broadbent was ready to return to the studio. That was the case with "Ride", although the album took a turn from what Broadbent initially intended. "I had to come off the road because of Covid and was going to work on a solo project of acoustic material," he recalls. Instead, with Quebecois drummer and co-producer Mark Gibson, "... we started playing some of the more rock 'n' roll stuff I had, and we couldn't deny that there was a kind of vibe happening. So, I just went full steam ahead in that direction which brought the sound of this album into focus. We built on those grooves and ended up with the rock 'n' roll record I've been wanting to make for a long time." "Ride" does, indeed, rock ... Broadbent's natural grit, voice and guitar, riding atop every song with a driving force. There us a great deal of stylistic diversity here, from the moody ambience of Who Are You? and the title track, which he calls "a tale of adventure", to the blues roots of New Orleans, a love letter to one of his favorite towns. Grace soars with a kind of front-porch spirituality, while "I Love Your Rock 'n' Roll", is as Broadbent explains, "... an homage to the bands that I like" and boasts an energetic Americana lope. Even though there are several twists and turns, the album takes the listener on a trip, strung together by a vision that Broadbent developed during the recording process. "Mark and I recorded the tracks live in a small home studio in Quebec, Canada. I then sent the recordings to the UK where my dad added the bass lines and then sent them back to us for mixing and mastering, " explains Broadbent. Working around travel limitations and within the uncertainty of the last year, this international collaboration translates that edge. Throughout "Ride", one can detect what Broadbent calls "this underlying theme of trying to get a feel for where you're heading and recognizing how much distance you've still got left to travel." The next step, of course, is to take "Ride" on the road, which Broadbent will be doing throughout 2022. He knows the songs will only grow as he presents them on stage, but they'll continue to speak to the experiences from which they were born. "I really like the energy of this record," Broadbent says. "There seems to be an interesting dichotomy between what I write while I'm touring and what I write when I'm able to sit and think. I think what the album speaks to is that juxtaposition between the ride and the time spent parked up. It all ties into the journey of the artist." No matter what lies on the road ahead, Broadbent's fans can rely on his dedication to the music and to his evolving craft. Little Feat founding member and current US tourmate Bill Payne says it best : "I love his voice. His playing is superb, showing an almost reckless abandon when he gets revved up. He is performing on the edge, and if he falls, so be it. The pieces will not break." "Ride" is delicious, raw Americana where the sporadically used instruments (guitar, bass and drums, that's it!) do the job. One that breathes the right atmosphere. One for the road. You'd think Americanized all the way. Forget it : Jack is as British as can be.

1 Ride 04:13

2 I Love Your Rock 'n' Roll 04:14

3 New Orleans 03:41

4 Hard Livin' 05:39

5 Midnight Radio 02:59

6 Baby Blue 05:18

7 Grace 03:10

8 Who Are You ? 05:21

Jack Broadbent - Guitar and Vocals

Mick Broadbent - Bass

Mark Gibson - Drums