The Blind Dead McJones Band – Everybody’s Making Lemonade

‘Everybody’s Making Lemonade’ is Leeds based The Blind Dead McJones Band 2nd album. Members Ben “Buddy” Slack, Andy “The Cake” Johnson and Steve “Wee-Man” Nixon got together in 2008 and released their debut album ‘Last Resort Mexico ‘in 2012, which received great reviews and a British Blues Award nomination for “Best Original Song”.

‘Everybody’s Making Lemonade’ is an a Capella song, with not a hint of blues, so you can see where this is heading, The Blind Dead McJones Band are not going to conform to any genre or be pigeon holed.
‘Raised by Wolves’ has a glorious vocal madness to it, sung over a simple guitar part hinting of 60’s rock and roll.
‘Too Young To Be Afraid’, is sung over a rumbling bass and a stop start guitar line, full of quirky vocals and time changes, this album is certainly beginning to offer up an eclectic mixture of blues rock.
‘Deep Blue Sea’ has a great progressive blues riff going on, a much more straightforward blues rocker.
The more I listen to this band, the more the songwriting certainly reminds me of David Byrne, very clever and at times very funny.
‘Shit’ is a cleverly written song, about everything going to hell, or Shit, played out over a simple verse chorus verse, quite straightforward for The Blind Dead McJones Band I feel, with not much quirkiness.
‘Whistlin’ Willies Blues’ has a dark mood running through it, and you really do need to really listen to these lyrics, they are sublime, a nicely picked blues guitar solo brings this track to a close.
‘The Burden’ has a rich blues vibe to it, with great interplay between vocal and guitar.
‘Rust’ has more of a modern blues rock sound to it, a great guitar riff accompanying another wonderful thought provoking vocal.
‘I Sharpen My Blade’ has a slow tempo to the song, set to the sound of a knife being sharpened, and a wonderful out of phase guitar part. As quirky as it gets.
‘At My Funeral’ picks up the pace again with some seriously sexy blues sounding guitars that carry the vocal, adding a richness to the track.
‘The Cat’s In The Bag’ is the final track, and I have no idea if that is a good or a bad thing, this is a seriously mixed up record in more ways than one, but you have to listen to it, as it draws you in, mad, bad and quirky, I love it.

I have no idea what these fellas are one, but we all need a dose of it, mad as a box of frogs they are, and we are all the better for it.

Track listing:

01.Everybody’s Making Lemonade
02.Raised By Wolves
03.Too Young To Be Afraid
04.Deep Blue Sea
05.Shit
06.Whistlin’ Willies Blues
07.The Burden
08.Rust
09.I Sharpen My Blade
10.At My Funeral
11.The Cat’s In The Bag

The website for the band is www.blinddeadmcjonesband.com.
They are on Facebook HERE
and Twitter

You can hear them on SoundCloud HERE