KYLE PALARINO(blueswax)

While most of the North American world is going to sunny blues festivals listening to who can tear up the neck of the guitar with more notes than dollar bills in Donald Trumps bank account, I’m thoroughly enjoying the deep sounds of Paul Karapiperis new album, “One Sin in Seven Parts.” I don’t see one ray of sunshine on this album and I don’t care. Paul grabs the sun with his bare hands and pushes it down under the horizon. Ahhh the darkness now sets the stage for this album. He quietly whispers to you from an alleyway and you have a choice: turn it up and back away or do you dare just get closer and really find out what that noise is creeping out of those speakers.

There are only seven songs on the album, but I can say this a lot here. Each song gets into a hard groove that should really scare the pants off ya. When you would watch Muddy really get excited about a groove he would get that lost look in his eyes. These aren’t the grooves of the 60’s or 70’s blues jams, thank goodness!! They are modern grooves of industrial wasteland and vacant brick warehouses. The resonator guitar work just haunts the dank roads of sin that we all struggle through in life. And remember this is an album of sin in seven parts. His harmonica wails like a ghost, not Casper, flying through walls to chase you around that abandoned house on the hill overlooking the sea with the waves crashing up on it. Chills just run up my spine at times as I hear the train shooting down the decrepit tracks that have rusted in the rain. The beauty of the true world’s landscape is shown in the music.

If you are going for a long trip, this has to be on your playlist. And I don’t just mean a physical trip, cause we all go on mental trips too. Life isn’t just work and sleep; it’s also the study of what’s really in between the tracks. Now take your time and enjoy the bright Festival season while it lasts, because as Paul brings out this beauty, it might be a long cold winter, but you have company.

Kyle M. Palarino