Had not heard of this guy until I saw him listed on the bill playing before Ana Popovic at the Mt. Dora Blues~n~Groove a few Saturdays ago. It said something about winning the 2013 Central FL Blues Challenge (?!?!). The site had a video that proved promising so I made sure I got there early enough to catch his set.
That's right, early enough as still daylight and thankfully not yet central-Florida-hot so the guys in the suits weren't melting. I'll tell ya, the man was impressive enough for the ol' jaded Mad Rocker to plop down $15 for the CD after the set. I haven't paid that much for a disc in over a decade! Since it was a 2014 release he played most of it during his show but I was afraid I'd be disappointed with the studio versions. Nope. My fear of being "environmentally" impressed was needless as this material is very well written and structured. DaSilva hails from Chicago and has been a fixture in south Florida for a while, the sax man is from Philly and the bassist said he was a "recovering New Yorker." They put on a good show with only a few premeditated moves. Here is a 20-minute set from last year's International Blues Challenge in Memphis that featured tracks from this album...
The man can sing, the man can play, the man can write.....I'll go see him again when provided the opportunity. This is the second Midnight Howl record and he's had a couple of other bands before so there's plenty of material to hear. One of the covers he played at Mt. Dora was so hot I texted BKP and wrote, "this has to be making Mr. Cash smile wherever he is..."
This was the closest version I could find that skirted the intensity of the performance I witnessed. Too bad I didn't film it myself.
The only comparison made on my notes was to Colin James but there are certainly others summoned by different tunes. Ten winner tracks out of eleven makes for a solid album. If you want a physical CD like mine, you can order one from his website for $17 which includes shipping. I honestly believe mine was really ten bucks but I could have had it signed for the extra fiver if I had waited for him to get to the merch tent. Believe me, the hard copy isn't worth the extra cash. Go to Amazon and get the MP3 for $9. I wish I had...
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