Rick plays the blooz. He's got a smooth guitar and a gravel-sweet voice. All the edge is in his phrasing and I'm particularly fond of his solo ideas.

The CD opens with the old Wille Dixon standard I Just Wanna Make Love To You and then we've got three original filled out simply with bass and drums. my pick of the four entries is the last one, carved by Carroll his-self out of solid New Hampshire blue granite.

I gut no complaints.

The Stratocaster carrying Carroll turns the Marshalls up to 10 on this explosive sampler of blazing blues rock. He's got a gritty, whiskey inflected voice that sounds like a gunfighter in his last battle.

Raw emotion is the key word here as Rick Carroll makes his presence known. His guitar playing is fluid and furious as he pounds out tunes that would turn the heads of Stevie Ray fans. Impressive!

Oh yeah, this is my kinda blues ... Willie Dixon's "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" sung with swagger and a sneer. The three originals included on this CD are in a similar vein: lyrics mined from the same vocabulary as traditional blues, and a bass that struts more than it walks alongside relentless drum grooves. The guitar work is explosive throughout. Carroll mixes in some diverse elements, from R&B to the screaming guitar of harder rock or metal at times, but always in relation to the blues at the core of the music. "Working Girl" reminded me a little of ZZ Top, and "Bad Need" is positively threatening. "Bye Bye Baby" finds him back in the R&B groove that's equal parts swing, burning guitar runs, cocaine and a relationship with a girl that just didn't work out worth a damn ... "You say you've got a problem, yeah, well so do I / Mine's got your name all over it, baby, so I'm gonna let it fly ..." Some nice work from Bob Plourde on bass and Steve Fortuna on drums. Trace Records has done right by Rick Carroll. The engineering, production, packaging and promotion are very professional. The liner notes end with the statement that this CD is "not going to soothe you, so you may as well turn it up to 11 and let it scream." I did, and it works.