Music review: Didn’t It Rain – Hugh Laurie | 4/5

The incomparable Hugh Laurie’s second album continues from where his previous album, Let Them Talk, left off. This time Laurie delves even further into his love for the Southern sounds of the American delta, with a heavy emphasis on jazz and delta blues. We’re talking Jelly Roll Morton, Count Basie, Kansas Joe McCoy and Rosetta Thorpe, to name but four. He also has the help of some talented people called the The Copper Bottom Band, who ably provide the musical backing for Laurie’s drawl. Speaking of singing voices, there’s an appearance by Taj Mahal, and singers Gaby Moreno and Jean McClain do a superb job sharing vocals with Laurie on Didn’t It Rain, with McClain shining particularly bright on I Hate A Man Like You, and Moreno handling the Spanish verses on Kiss Of Fire with aplomb. While Laurie’s vocals quite can’t hold a candle to them, there’s no lack of obvious enthusiasm in his performance - which is a good thing, by the way. And if more people start listening to the blues because they wanted to know what Greg House would be up to next, that’ll be a good thing too.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "facebook-jssdk"));

View the original article here