Les Dudek "Delta Breeze"

I have yet to post on an album more than six months old, and certainly not one at thirteen months, but I have no choice here.  The year was 1977 and this album on the right landed at WPRK.  How could I NOT spin it?

Little did I know that I already had some of his work in my album collection.  Les had guested on the ABB's "Bros & Sistas", Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" and Steve Miller's "Flying Eagle."  It quickly became one of my favorites.  Here's a track as proof...  If you looked at the info, you'll see a couple of names who later became part of Toto.  The follow-up album, "Ghost Town Parade," can be easily dubbed as a favorite record from my time at Rollins College, spun ad nauseum on WPRK and The Mad Rocker Show.  There was the Dudek, Finnegan, Krueger Band and also a group in 1980 called Black Rose which was really a rock showcase for Les' squeeze at the time, Cher.  Don't believe me?



The band co-hosted a Midnight Special in September that was pretty good.  Cher fans seemed to like the album, Dudek's didn't (eh, it was OK...I have it) and critics panned it.  Les did another solo the following year and then basically dropped out of sight for more than a decade.  By the time he surfaced with a new album, the year was 1994 and it was on a tiny label from the east coast of Florida.  "Deeper Shade of Blues" was an outstanding comeback record and I was so blown away I called the label and started asking questions.  Next thing you know, I've got Les doing a meet 'n' greet at our company convention in St. Pete and many managers put the CD in their store's inventory.  It brought him a new set of younger fans and revitalized old ones like moi. 



And just like that......gone again.  He'd surface to do a few small-venue shows and I got to have a couple beers with him on breaks during one at Cricketeers @ The Mercado.  He thanked me for helping him sell some records and I felt on top of the world! 

When BKP sent "Delta Breeze" to me in mid-February, I was stunned to learn of a new album.  As I've researched clips for this post, I've also learned of another CD from 2005 (well, shit, I'll probably have to get the mp3 file).  A quick sampling of a few tracks was enough to merit immediate commitment to disc and a search for a website and Facebook page.  Damn if he wasn't playing the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth in early March so tickets were purchased even before spinning the disc.  As timing would have it, I didn't get to pop it into the player until I was on my way down the turnpike.  Had a smile on my face within the first thirty seconds.  Opener is an instrumental just like the ones he wrote early on in his career.  The title cut followed and the smile widened.  The next two songs were initially a let down since they had that "single" blueprint but subsequent spins dug the hooks in deeper.  Track 4 could have been a Huey Lewis or Steve Miller song if I ever heard one.  His signature slide and spot-on vocals are still strong after forty years.  Track 5 is another smoker and six & seven are back to the formula.  Number eight could have been mistaken for Little Feat, a little ditty about the government's ability to rip us all off in more ways than one.  Once I hit #9.....uh oh..... A mere four minutes later and I'm standing on the accelerator pushing 90 mph and the stereo volume reads twice what it normally does......"Trouble With The Law" might just be the best rock song I've heard by ANYBODY in years!  There's one more sharply barbed song before the album's finale in which Les feels his mortality, "chasing the minutes of the day" and "watching loved ones pass away."  

Hey Les, if you can make a record this fantastic forty-something years deep into a career, it ain't over, buddy.  I beg you....please keep 'em coming.