Country music from Detroit? The Bluesbunny must try to get out more. Especially as this is album number four from Justine Blazer. Anyway, we like country music at Bluesbunny Towers - almost as much as we like beer - so better late than never, we decided to pass judgement.
Start as you mean to continue is a good maxim and Justine Blazer sets the tone for this album with what will no doubt be a truck stop favourite in "Wheels". Following on with "Real Kinda Girl", she tells us that she is just a simple, downhome, beer drinking girl at heart. Of course she is, but Bluesbunny has never heard anyone in the supermarket checkout queue sing like her. She really throws herself into the song. If you need something radio friendly, then "Sometimes Goodbye" is a stormer of a power ballad with the added bonus of a quality contribution from Andy Lee's fiddle. Ms Blazer then comes over all feisty with "Materialistic". For whatever reason (as if reason had a place in the Bluesbunny mind …), she comes across like a sugar coated version of blues diva Cathy Jean. Just a bit scary, if you ask me. Talking of the blues, BJ Mason's dirty old guitar takes us through some 12 bar fun in "Girl Singin' the Blues". There are some obvious stabs at widespread commercial success ("Beautiful" and "Good Days") that seem rather pedestrian compared to the rest of the songs here but, hell, everybody has to pay the bills. Ms Blazer's voice is well up to the task throughout and she has recruited some excellent musical support for this album.
Whilst this is fairly conventional modern day country music, there is plenty of spark and energy on display and that really lifts this album out of the ordinary. Anyway, Ms Blazer seems like the kind of gal that you could take home to meet your mother. Well, not my mother (because that just would not be smart) but your mother. You've been told so go do the decent thing. That means buy the CD, by the way. Available from CD Baby.