Tom Doughty

CD - Running Free

Play 90 second soundbite of 'Some These Days' @ 'CD quality'

'Running Free' is the second album from chilled bluesman Tom Doughty. Specialist lap slide guitar virtuoso Doughty keeps it very honest but gives his all to a variety of self-penned originals, trad.arr re-interpretations and a few surprises along the way as he digs deep into his own consciousness and allows the listener to peer a little bit deeper into the very heart and soul of the man and his music.

As you'd expect from one so adept at his given trade, Doughty's work is simplistic but expressive; his style and range of guitar work is totally individualistic. The guitar strings seem to gently weep at his delicate touch but can just as readily wail out with passion, as if somehow offended or hurt, when asked. The man's own passion and the emotion of the songs are truly portrayed through subtle dexterity and complete knowledge and understanding of his 'tools of the trade'.

The album title, 'Running Free', is absolutely descriptive of its content. There's a well practiced freedom to Doughty's exquisite playing; an ease that only comes with dedication and belief. And, whether anguished and pained or sympathetically mellow Doughty's vocal work always sits comfortably within the framework and mood of the song; he has a natural folk/blues delivery that's easy on the ear and never once sounds unnatural or even slightly forced. It just all sounds so bloody simple!

Chilled, yes certainly, 'Running Free' is exactly that. It may have blue veins running through it but there's real heart and soul in this little beauty. If the blues is generally a dark and solemn genre, Tom Doughty manages to instil a certain 'light at the end of the tunnel' feel - a positivity - and above all, a commitment to all that's good about slide blues. Excellent - a lesson on how to make the blues sound cool!

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