Earlier this year I ventured out in the middle of a severe weather warning into the centre of Christchurch to see Mudbelly at their album launch gig. The band had waited a long time to put on the show, as although the album was recorded the previous year, there had been some line-up changes so that at one point only singer Bex and drummer/guitarist/singer John were left, so they had to rebuild the band before making the album available. It was one heck of a night, and I came away massively impressed by the blues-soaked machine, which is Mudbelly, fronted by a singer who comes across as a mix between Janis Joplin and Maggie Bell.

There are way too few female fronted rock bands with the balls to play this style of music, and the main reason for that is there are very few singers who are prepared to stand up and allow themselves to be compared with some of the greatest there have ever been. That night they played “Mercedes Benz”, which impressed me immensely, as everyone knows that is Janis’s song, and just by performing it they are asking to be judged. That number is not included in the eight numbers available on this 31-minute-long album, but if it had been then it would have fitted right in as this is sleazy, bluesy, gritty, raw, and soulful music full of passion and emotion. Bex has incredible vocal chops and has an incredibly broad voice which promises so much and delivers every time – she does not sing as if we are well into the 21st Century but is back in the heyday of this style of music, the late Sixties and early Seventies, and one can imagine these guys sharing the stage with Big Brother & The Holding Company or Stone The Crows.

While Bex is the vocal front and face, what makes this album work so well is the rightness of the band and the different styles they employ. “Baby U No Good” was released as a single earlier this year, and the mix of slides down the neck and riffs make this a hugely commercial number, but it contrasts greatly with the ballad which is “Away”. This has with acoustic guitar, gentle bass and sympathetic drums, with a wonderful delicate slide guitar in the middle. That in turn contrasts with “Crooked Magic” which somehow mixes in with some grunge with the likes of Bad Company. It is hard to understand that it is more than 50 years since Janis died, but here is a New Zealand band who are determined to keep that bluesy full throated female rock fronted style of music alive and well in Aotearoa.

Rating: 9/10

Links:
https://mudbelly.net/