Kirk Fletcher: Keep On Pushing
I usually don’t drink bourbon, but tonight I have to break out a bottle of Bardstown (Amrut) to marinate my soul into the blues. I haven’t listened to the good ole blues in a while and Kirk Fletcher’s eighth studio release, Keep On Pushing, fills that gap.
Right off the bat, Fletcher gets down with the 12-bar blues. With Ted Jarret’s “It’s Love Baby,” Fletcher sings the AAB form: “Honey my days and nights are lonely, I need your lovin’ every day / Honey my days and nights are lonely, I need your lovin’ every day / But I think about you baby, 24 hours of the day.”
In addition to his intoxicating vocals, Fletcher is a hell of a blues guitar player. Check out his breathtaking solo on Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “I’m Gonna Dig Myself A Hole” or the deep-down blues on Percy Mayfield’s “Lost Love,” and his begging is so damn hard to resist: “Baby please, baby please come back to me / Baby please, Please come back to me / Because I am a prisoner / I need your love to set me free.”
What I love about the good ole blues is sometimes you can get some life lessons out of it. Al K. Smith gives sound advice in his “Think Twice Before You Speak.” Fletcher preaches: “The graveyard is full of people that talk too much / I know my time is coming but I’m in no rush / Many hearts have been broken because someone lied / My advice is let your conscience be your guide.”
Of course “Every Dog Has Its Day,” as Edward Bocage has penned it and Fletcher shares it: “My friends turn their back on me / When hard times come scratching at me / Hard times, hard times got me now / As Confucius say, every dog has its day.” What can you do about it except to “Keep On Pushing” as Fletcher reminds us, “Don’t get lost in the struggle, gotta live your live with ease / Don’t get lost in the struggle, gotta live your live with ease / That good lovin’ woman, she almost brought me to my knees.”
Good music needs no liquor, but bourbon and blues definitely lift up your spirit or drown you in it. Either way, I enjoy Keep On Pushing.