'If like me, you enjoy early period Ry Cooder, this collection by the very versatile Rick Payne will suit you.' 
THE BLUES CONNECTION

'One of the west country's finest musicians.' 
BBC RADIO BRISTOL

'Decent folk and blues. Loads of slide guitar, raw vocal.' 
FOLK ROOTS

'Eminently listenable.' 
VENUE MAGAZINE

Reviewers have described his sound as: heart wrenching and passionate, delicate and scorching, seriously brilliant, totally absorbing and spellbindingly evocative with raw and fiery vocals to match.

‘Held this sell out audience spellbound from start to finish…’ 
SPALDING BLUES CLUB

‘The guitar playing is simply amazing, it expresses such emotion you have to sit back in awe…’ 
R & B MAGAZINE

‘Impressive slide guitar playing from West Country bluesman whose work bears comparison with early Ry Cooder…’  
DAILY TELEGRAPH

' LIVE BLUES REVIEW............

RICK PAYNE.....
Spalding Blues Club..

 90 minutes can sometimes prove taxing on an audiences attention capabilities with a solo performer as opposed to a band who can divide ones aforesaid attention several ways, but Rick Payne certainly held this sell out audience spellbound from start to finish with a most inventive and eclectic set, much of which was gleaned from his latest CD offering 'Live at the Folkhouse'.  Although heavily into acoustic slide guitar, Rick departs from the ubiquitous 'take the slide to the 12th fret and give it hell brigade' by covering the whole of the fret board with the bottleneck including the bass strings which gives a wonderful eerie feel, hence I guess the comparisons with Ry Cooder, exquisite stuff indeed.  This was very much to the fore in a wonderful rendition of 'After Midnight' as featured on the CD.  Other slide highlights included 'Buckets of Rain' (Dylan) 'Walking Blues' and the final number of the night 'Crazy About An Automobile'.

A wealth of other material was also featured, too many to list herein ...ragtime 'Too Too Train' (Broonzy)...Fingerpicking 'St Louis Blues' (WC Handy).... plus a thoroughly intense and haunting original number 'Round and Round' a whiskey related song we were told, better not get into the relevance of this one!

Consummate musicianship, coupled with an engaging personality provided the totally engaged audience with an exhilarating night of acoustic blues, apologies and commiserations to those who could not get tickets ..... and finally was it just a trick of the lights or did I really detect an uncanny physical likeness to the late Rory Gallagher?.....Rick certainly exhibited that similar and most wonderful facial contentment when one could plainly see that his music was taking him, in addition to the audience, to an almost indescribable, surreal level of innermost satisfaction.

     R Howell

Back to top