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BILLBOARD MAGAZINE "More than anyone else, anywhere, Powers represents the future of the Blues." MOJO - ONYX ROOT LISTED IN 2005 TOP TEN BEST BLUES ALBUMS "... Powers brings a funky acoustic guitar and a voice magnificently riven and distressed. ...The inner power of Powers’ music is startlingly original." Tony Russell CLASSIC ROCK (UK) "... On his first solo album (Michael) has managed to create that a rare beast: a blues album that doesn’t depend on endless guitar wankery." Scott Rowley TIME OUT NEW YORK "The gritty soul on his new independent release, Onyx Root, is befitting a cat who apprenticed with James Cotton." LIVING BLUES "Powers’ singing and playing are gritty and convincing, making him a performer to watch and Onyx Root one of the year’s must-hear debuts." Jim DeKoster BLUES REVUE "Powers is a precise guitarist. He doesn’t squander notes and he sounds like no one else. ONYX ROOT is sure to make a few Top Ten lists this year." Jeff Calvin BLUESWAX "As Michael sings it in Successful Son, he is an overnight sensation... 20 years in the making. This is a good one (Onyx Root)." Beardo BLUESPEAK.COM "This is the best blues album I’ve heard all year. It’s smartly conceived, deftly performed, carefully planned and is top quality in every way." Brown Burnett BLUES BYTES "Onyx Root is a disc worth finding especially for those who say the blues has gotten boring. Powers’ music is anything but that." Bill Mitchell BLUESGUITARPLAYER.COM "Powers is a purist. ... The kind that turns all of his diverse influences into pure" musical expression." Dave Rubin GUITAR WORLD ACOUSTIC "That thick, layered vibe reverberates throughout the diverse, freewheeling Onyx Root - a record defined by Powers’ world-weary vocals, superb acoustic electric interplay and formidable rhythm support... A stylistic tour de force..." Sean McDevitt MUSICBOX-ONLINE.COM "Powers dabbles in a little bit of everything (on Onyx Root) and each is delivered with absolute perfection." THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH "Breathe a sigh of relief. Meaty blues are here to stay. Michael Powers is the standard bearer." Scott Lake BLUESRAG (BALTIMORE BLUES SOCIETY) "Onyx Root is an extraordinary record. Can’t wait to see this guy play live." Bob Sekinger BLUES MATTERS! "Michael Powers is indeed a rare commodity in sounding so vital and fresh after making music for 40 years. Powers has an impressive musical range and versatility - a musician for all seasons." Billy Hutchinson Reviews MICHAEL POWERS Onyx Root Baryon 2002 "Took me 20 years to be discovered overnight," New York City bluesman Michael Powers growls on his solo album, a long-in-the-making mix of fine originals and intriguing covers. Powers made noise as a member of Moonbeam in 1970s New York before going sub-rosa for much of the next two decades (don't confuse Powers with the Seattle jazz guitarist of the same name). His "discovery" came at the hands of a fan who happened to work for a record company. Drummer Steve Jordan, known for his stint in Keith X-pensive Winos, worked with Powers in Moonbeam; the two are rejoined here. Jordan is one of the world’s best pure blues drummers; he's conversant in styles from the gangliest rockabilly to the sweetest soul to the fanciest funk. Bassist Neil Jason's resume includes time with Eric Gales, David Sanborn, and jazz monster Michael Brecker. But for all the firepower, everyone in the band plays it cool, you hear the songs, not the players. Powers is a precise guitarist: He doesn't squander notes, and he like no one else - unless he’s trying to as when he nods to Muddy Waters on a cover of "Country Boy." Even then, there’s a swampier feel to those familiar licks,equally soul stirring but deeper,damper. He owns up to his influences freely: "Successful Son" - Powers' own life story as a one-chord boogie - is a cousin to "I'm a Man," while the mid tempo "Graffiti" is in Jimi Hendrix power-ballad mode (the gorgeous intro will make you think of "Little Wing"). "Shimmy Up" is a rootsy funk workout with a singalong chorus, and "Shock" is the kind of knife-edged blues-funk Jagger and Richards wish they could still write. Check out the covers: a boiling take on "Psychotic Reaction" that's fun, if tamer than the Count Five original (how could it not be?), a romp through the Sir Douglas Quintet's joyfully dumb "She's About a Mover," and a somber version of Leonard Cohen's "Bird On a Wire." This one's sure to make a few Top 10 lists this year. JEFF CALVIN -- Blues Revue MICHAEL POWERS Onyx Root Baryon BYN 002 Michael Powers was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1952 to a father with North Carolina roots and a mother with a fondness for Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters records. By the time Powers was in high school, he was singing and playing the guitar professionally, and his resume includes stints with the Adlibs and James Cotton as well as leading his own unit, the Moonbeams. On Onyx Root, Powers teams with bassist Neil Jason and drummer Steve Jordan. mixing covers of I Can't Quit You Baby, Who's Been Talking and Country Boy (reworked into an almost totally new song) from the Chicago canon with others from the Sir Douglas Quintet (She's About A Mover) , Count Five (Psychotic Reaction), and Vera Hall (Another Man Done Gone). There are also half a dozen Powers originals (credited to Michael Murchison; Powers is his mother's name)-a varied lot that includes the Hooker-influenced Successful Son, the latin-jazz workout Night In Madrid, a Piedmont-tinged All Over Town, some James Brown funk on Shimmy Up, and a touch of Hendrix on Graffiti. Powers' singing and playing are gritty and convincing, marking him as a performer to watch and Onyx Root as one of the year's must-hear debuts. JIM DEKOSTA Living Blues Michael Powers Onyx Root Baryon 2004 "It’s gonna be my time, after a while..."says the often-used old blues line. Now it’s high time for Michael Powers. My first thought was "It sounds like Muddy Waters with Jimi Hendrix as his guitarist". Of course, there is a whole lot more to it and such simple comparisons don’t do justice, but this thinking not without merit. Onyx Root is a rare gem that stands out as one of the best blues albums I’ve heard in a very long time. Who is this guy? How come he is not a superstar? How can it be that someone so unbelievably good could be so close, yet so far away? Nowadays, when the market is flooded by weak, clichéd blues releases from even the most mediocre sideman, how can it be that a musician of such amazing skill can stay out of the limelight? Singer/songwriter and guitarist Michael Powers , not to be confused with the Seattle based guitarist by the same name, is a mainstay of New York City’s great blues club Terra Blues, where he is the Friday night house-band. He’s not exactly from out of nowhere, although fame has so far eluded him. In the early 1960’s Powers was the guitarist for the pop R&B group the Ad Libs, who had a hit with "(Do wah, doo wah diddy, he’s a) Boy from New York City". The Ad Libs were near famous and recorded some pretty cool stuff, which is still great when you hear it today. Ever since, Powers has been paying his dues and living the blues, literally and figuratively. No youngster, the affable Powers lost a leg to diabetes, had his share of hard times, and he lived to tell about it. He can sing the blues about all the reasons why he could have been, should have been and about the one that got away. This album is his best shot, and so far the stars are lining up just right. Michael Powers is the real deal. Decades ago he should have been elevated to the stature bestowed on Buddy Guy , Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Clapton, because he belongs in their ranking. He is a little late on the fame horizon, but even if this is the only record he will ever make, artistically and in sheer musical prowess Onyx Root is a masterpiece. It sounds and feels like it came from another time, yet totally fresh. Onyx Root should propel him to international fame if his management and upstart record label do their job right, as it is certainly the best blues album I’ve heard all year long. Every time I play one of Power’s songs on WKZE the phone lights up. Especially the real blues devotees are blown away and with good reason. His CD release party performance at the Living Room in the East Village of NYC was amazing. Powers is the only guitarist I’ve ever heard that truly reminded me of Jimi Hendrix. It’s not so much that Powers sounds like Hendrix, although he can when he wants to. It’s that he has the finesse, touch, magic, and the feeling the very musical essence that Jimi had. Powers made me feel like I was finally witnessing what I had missed before, not as a mere mimicker, but one who channels the beauty of Jimi Hendrix’s music into the deep blues. Michael Powers, an extraordinarily brilliant guitarist and soulful singer, is different, he took just the right stuff from Jimi and developed his own deep blues style. This is as close to the perfect blues album I’ve ever heard, and certainly a modern classic. This is Michael Power’s Hoodoo Man. Everything is just right. It would not be a stretch to say that on many levels, especially production, Onyx Root is up a notch from the highly touted debuts by Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughn and even Joe Lewis Walker. Kudos to producers Steve Rosenthal and Jimi Zhivago, who understood this artist and captured him flawlessly. Frank Garfi at Studio 900 beautifully engineered the CD. Onyx Root covers the gamut. Virtually the entire spectrum of black music up to the late 70’s is spanned without any notable shift. You get powerful covers of classics by Muddy Waters, the Howling Wolf and Willie Dixon to unexpected treasures by Vera Hall, Leonard Cohen, and Count Five. Powers’ originals are equally exciting and showcase his true strength as a songwriter. By the time you get toward the end of the album you’ve integrated funk, rock, soul and R&B without ever really feeling a change. The slight genre bending is irrelevant because Powers understands that these musical forms are at their roots one and the same. He is unmistakably a bluesman and the blues is the basis of it all. If only Muddy could have heard Powers’ version of Country Boy he would have been proud, and maybe fired his guitarist. Personally, this is the best version of the song I’ve heard, sans Muddy’s originals. The album opens with Successful Son, an original, autobiographical introspective that unveils the rich, raspy tenor singing and dazzling guitar work of this CD. Powers is a fierce, crisp and multi-faceted guitar stylist whose range of technique and superlative skill is guided by the wisdom of taste. In the hands of a lesser man, guitar skills like this often lead to infinitely boring, self-possessed show-off noodling. He harnessed his guitar prowess and focused his style to ride the top end of the blues guitarist spectrum without losing sight of his songs. Not only that, but he can sing . Michael Powers is bold and this record is a triumph! FRANK MATHEIS Frank Matheis is an internationally published independent music writer and radio producer residing in Pawling, New York. He is host of the "Blues Show". He was formerly a contributing writer to Blues Access. Frank is also a performing blues musician. He reports to the Living Blues radio chart. |
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