There are few musicians who are as congenial, live their lives from a place of gratitude or play an electric guitar as well as San Diego artist Patrick Yandall, so it was with great delight that I spun his new CD One Hour Blues. Looking funky on the cover in a black hat, black suit jacket and sunglasses, this is a new look for Mr. Yandall and “Follow My Road,” the opening song on this fabulous album, is played with the same passion with which Patrick Yandall performs in concert. If we may put in a plug for him you can watch the schedule for Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge in San Diego where he often performs with his band.

In most cases when you get an album which is entirely written, produced and played by the same person, it can get boring and pretty one dimensional pretty quickly, however, that is not the case with On Hour Blues, as Yandall plays the keyboards, bass and his Fender custom Stratocaster guitar. There are plenty of special effects and note bending on “Follow My Road,” and the only misgiving we have about this album is the use of drum programming, as we would have preferred a live body.

The song “One Hour Blues,” reminds me of the Siegel-Schwall band when I listened to them perform on the west coast a few years ago. The music moves well and although there are not any harmonicas, this is still blues at its finest. This writer was fooled by a bit of technical genius on the part of Yandall, as he played his synthesizer through a Leslie speaker and emulated a Hammond B3 organ, which gives the song the feel of a live concert and establishes a cool groove.  

The best way to describe the first few bars of the third track “Whos Voodoo,” is psychedelic oriental and then you dive headlong back into the blues. One should not assume that this is album, despite its name is a typical blues recording, because Patrick Yandall’s love for rock and jazz inform his songwriting and playing. The funk continues, however it slows down the pace a bit rather than dazzling you with blistering guitar solos, there is more emotional depth and texture to this song. We liked what Yandall does at the 2:35 mark of this song which is 4:23 in length, when he introduces some ethereal keys as a bridge. Mind numbing might be one way to describe the astounding fingering of the frets and the chord progressions, which follow the bridge. Perhaps, because of his humility, Patrick Yandall is often overlooked as one of California’s and perhaps the country’s most talented guitarists and that should not be the case.  

The sound of percussion on “Braveheart,” (not related to the movie) are difficult to define and the liner notes do not give us an indication of what we are listening to, however my guess would that we are hearing a shaker, a shakere or a Brazilian caxixi. At any rate the percussion serves as a nice backbeat for the gentler electric guitar vibes on this song. The playing is not rambunctious and instead the listener is treated to the more elegant side of Patrick Yandall’s playing.

“The Reason I Play,” has a contagious recurring riff and the music soars more than it is gritty or funky and this song seems to be crying out for someone to put lyrics to it (that is a hint Patrick), because the music is uplifting and you sense the smile on the musician’s face as he plays.

If you are a fan of the electric guitar you should enjoy the album One Hour Blues and you can listen to select tracks on Patrick Yandall’s Facebook page on his ILike player.