It's truly a fascinating story, the one belonging to the 25-years-old American guitarist and singer/songwriter D.K. Harrell. Born and raised in Louisiana on bread and Blues by his parents, as an only child, the singer/songwriter started learning to play the harmonica at the age of 8 and, by the time Harrell was 19, he got his first paid gig. It did not take long for D.K. Harrell, then, a couple of years later, to find himself rubbing shoulders on stage with some true giants of Blues and Blues/Rock, like Bobby Rush and Gary Clark Jr, for example, among many more.
Harrell's many talents as a guitar player and also as a singer, did not go unnoticed by the Blues Aficionados of the United States. The guitarist's popularity as a complete artist has increased exponentially, especially in the last few years and his vast knowledge and understanding of the Blues, which Harrell has kept on developing more and more as the years went by, brought the young and very talented American artist to finally release his first solo album, called The Right Man.
D.K. Harrell's debut album is a true thing of beauty. Written, played, sang and arranged with minute attention to every detail and with such an enormous showcase of artistry on all fronts from this incredibly talented singer/songwriter and guitarist, The Right Man is a complete Manifesto of Harrell's love not only for the Blues, but also of other genres like Soul, Funk, R&B and Boogie.
Superbly produced by Norwegian ace guitarist and producer Christoffer "Kid" Andersen, Harrell's debut album pays also homage to Blues giants close to the heart of Harrell's musical education, like B.B. King or Freddie King, among others, creating a sonically addictive barrage of well penned tunes that shift from Chicago Blues style to the Stax sound of Memphis, touching heavily also on Southern Soul, with such a natural musical and vocal ability able to lift the spirit of any listener and proper music connoisseur.
Supported by an equally excellent array of studio musicians in the making of the album, such as bassist Jerry Jemmott (Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Freddy King, and bassist on B.B. King’s original recording of "The Thrill Is Gone"), drummer Tony Coleman (30 years with B.B. King) and keyboardist Jim Pugh (Etta James, Robert Cray) along with Kid Andersen himself on rhythm guitar, Harrell's guitar playing is intuitive as it is brilliant, while his vocals are solid, powerful, crisp and pitch perfect on each of the 11 songs comprised into The Right Man.
It is important also to cite the remarkable work added to this outstanding record by the Horns Section, which includes sax players Aaron Lington, Stephen "Doc" Kupka and Mike Peloquin, trumpeters Neil Levonius and John Halbleib, trombone player Mike Rinta and conga player Jon Otis, all contributing to add a real Blues and R&B Orchestra flavour to Harrell's debut album.
Hands down, one of the most interesting, refreshing and exquisitely well played sang and arranged albums of the year to date, The Right Man is a record not only of great class and elegance but it is also an album which gift us with a new, highly promising and very talented artist like D.K. Harrell.
The Right Man is out now and is available to be purchased via Little Village Foundation
