"Gratitude" Review

By Karen Nugent
Boston Blues Society Editor

Newton-based guitarist Paul Speidel is an under recognized talent. His five-track EP will hopefully remedy that. The five instrumentals hit on all styles and are handled with great aplomb by Speidel, a talented guitarist who tends to walk on the jazzy side of the street. He is joined here by several well-known area musicians including Rosy Rosenblatt on harp, Alizon Lissance on keyboards, Ed Harlow on saxophones, and Garret Savluk on trumpet. The opener, “Taking it Home” is a bluesy tune, with some tremendous harp from Rosenblatt. “A Swing Celebration” is what the title sounds like. The song has a joyful feel, with some old-school Benny Goodman kind of style at the end. Speidel really shines on guitar. The nearly six-minute title track shows up about halfway through the EP, and it’s the best on the record. The song is bluesy, sexy, and, again, there’s a lot of fine guitar work. “Digging In Deeper” seems to stray from the rest of the songs on the CD, but that’s OK. It’s funky with a 1970s feel, complete with some good ole psychedelic wah-wah pedal. The record comes back to old blues for the last song, aptly titled, “Buddy Comes Calling” (AKA Buddy Guy.) It’s got that old swampy Delta blues feel, and some wonderful piano from Lissance. For those who’ve never seen Paul perform live, please take a listen and check him out. He’s a nice guy – a mensch. In fact, the liner notes on the self-produced record, which was made with money from a Kickstarter campaign, ask folks to donate to the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Ed Lucie

Brendan Byrnes

Garret Savluk

Through the (Studio) Looking-glass

As part of our 20th Anniversary celebrations, we held three live shows around the Boston area over late 2014-early 2015. We started off with the main program at Boston’s premiere nightclub, Scullers, with guests like Toni Lynn Washington, “Sax” Gordon, David Maxwell. It was especially meaningful as it was the last time David played Scullers, sadly, his final major performance before he passed away.

Our second show was an early evening event at 3 Squares, a local family restaurant. This one was kid-friendly and featured some of our old friends George Leh, Gerry Beaudoin and Lisa Marie among others.

We officially wrapped up the festivities with a “Best of the Paul Speidel Band”, just us playing our favorite numbers off our CDs at the now legendary club, Johnny D’s.

It was a great year of re-connecting with many old friends, making new ones and getting to make music again with such a talented group of people…thank you again to all the kind folks who celebrated with us, whether up close or from afar—to you all, we express our “Gratitude”!

Photos by Eric Antoniou

Photos by Holly Harris

Toni Lynn Washington & the PSB

Paul Speidel

Toni Lynn Washington

David Maxwell

Paul Speidel, Holly Harris with new fans (David Moore, right)

John Wiesner, Kenny Larsen, Toni Lynn & Sax Gordon

Holly Harris, Fred Taylor, Toni Lynn, Paul, Sax Gordon, Alizon Lissance & David Moore

John Wiesner on Melodica (Kenny Larsen background vocals)