Blue Rock'it Records
2006
The Dance Goes On
About This Album
The Ford Blues Band guitarist steps center-stage for his second solo album and the impressive results show he should consider leading his own band full-time. Since The Dance Goes On was recorded in Germany and California with musicians from both locales, Volker Strifler connects his disparate influences into a seamless whole. His hollow body solos are as impressive as you'd expect, but it's his voice that is the real revelation here. He sings in a confident but not brash style that perfectly suits the horn-infused blues, R&B, surf and soul that dominate this release. Although the project is blues based, it is not like the straight-ahead Chicago blues favored by his other band. There are only two covers and they are both from the Willie Dixon-by-way-of-Howlin' Wolf songbook; an acoustic "Evil" -- the album's only entirely unplugged tune -- and a lowdown version of "Spoonful." They are placed next to each other in the mid-section of the disc as sort of a detour to the more soul influenced bulk of this material. Tunes such as the horn driven "Somebody Help Me" and "Downtown Living" are Memphis-styled R&B with chunky backbeats and Strifler's husky vocals bringing the emotion.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,6,8 and 10)

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