REVIEW: Craig Caffall - Hold Me Up

Craig Caffall has played music around the world. Picking up the guitar while attending a boarding school in England, Caffall later moved to California and has been playing in the U.S. and Mexico since. The Craig Caffall band has had many incarnation over the years and covered many states. The release of Craig’s album Hold Me Up in 2007 is just another brick in the proverbial wall of Caffall’s exciting career in music.

Hold Me Up, the first track on the album as well as the title track, is a blues song complete with blues guitar solos and New Orleans soul. Mudbugs and Dixie Beer has more of southern rock feel with the vocals echoing back to compound the original energy. Cryin’ in the Rain is a classic rock style song that brings to mind the likes of Van Morrison and Tom Petty. Roll On Big Sister, the title track of Caffall’s 1999 release, doesn’t seem to have the same level of musicianship as the other tracks on Hold Me Up although the concept behind the song still deserves merit. The Storm starts out with a little mandolin and fiddle. This song sounds like a mix of bluegrass and some good old classic rock. The vocals in this track stand out in this track as having more energy and emotion than some of the previous songs. Try is a slower song that’s more of a ballad with a ‘Stormy Monday’ feel and definitely fits well here in relation to the rest of the album. I Did It All Bad lyrically mimics Caffall’s bio and has the honesty and poeticism to make a great song. Hope You’re Doing Alright has a 90‘s pop/rock vibe and adds a nice hint of diversity to the album as a whole. Up in Flames is a good song, however the instrumentation is a little repetitive. It would have been nice to hear a little more dynamics in this one. Closing out the album, Hard Life starts out slow with just Craig and the guitar. The song build up to a grand finale - this is the type of dynamics I was talking about earlier - awesome!

Overall, Hold Me Up is an entertaining album and Craig Caffall is an artist with tons to offer musically. The album is bumpy at times, but as a whole, full of soul, energy and some great blues.

3.5 out of 5 stars

You can learn more about Craig Caffall Band at www.craigcaffall.com