With the ink still drying on his new contract with Provogue/Mascot Records, Aaron Keylock celebrates with his first London headlining show at Camden’s Black Heart, a black-walled room above the pub itself.
The good news is that Keylock’s blistering blues is pulling a new, younger audience; not as young as the 17-year-old guitar-slinger maybe, but at least a couple of decades younger than your traditional blues crowd.
Opening with the slick, ferocious double whammy of Medicine Man (which should be familiar to CR readers from the recent Sounds For 2015 CD) and Against The Grain, Keylock instantly proves that he has the guitar licks to back up the looks, while his rhythm section set up a pulverising thud.
He already has the songs for his debut album, too, to judge from this set that ranges from the tumbling-diced Spin The Bottle to the Rory Gallagher-esque Give Me A Chance To Explain and included the newly written Turn The Page. For older punters looking for direct references, he chucks in a couple of Johnny Winter covers. He may need to work on his vocals, though, especially on slower songs like Just One Question with its shades of Since I’ve Been Loving You.
