MICHAEL MESSER AND CHAZ JANKEL

MICHAEL MESSER AND CHAZ JANKEL

Virtuoso slide guitarist & songwriter Michael Messer (favourite of Johnny Cash) and multi-instrumentalist songwriter Chaz Jankel (Ian Dury & The Blockheads) release their debut album, Mostly We Drive – a finely crafted, lyrically inventive collaboration via Knife Edge Records/Proper.

These two superb songwriters wear decades of combined musical experience lightly, as the eleven original songs here display a freshness of approach and add new twists to their foundational influences in Blues, World, Funk, New Wave and Rock. This exhilarating and accessible collection bears comparison with the finest work in either of their garlanded careers.

Michael Messer’s reputation as an innovator in the blues genre and master of slide guitar is well known. For forty years and ten albums Messer has been unafraid to incorporate Reggae, African stylings, Hindustani classical music and even turntablism into his individual vision of the Blues. Messer’s album ‘King Guitar’ topped the US Living Blues chart, while his latest ‘Call Of The Blues’, garnered airplay in over 50 countries. Johnny Cash ‘The Man In Black’ even professed himself a fan and wrote the liner notes for Michael’s award-winning collaboration album ‘Rhythm Oil’. “What I hear here is the real thing. This record carried me away to a long time ago, down a Delta dirt road to a land of my musical good-old-daysing.” Johnny Cash - TN, 1992

In 1973 Chaz Jankel opened his account, placing a track on a Long John Baldry album. Later in the ‘70s he joined Kilburn & The High Roads and started writing with Ian Dury. Jankel’s partnership with Ian continued through The Blockhead years and beyond, writing stone-cold classics such as ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ and ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’. In the 1980s, as well as having success on the US dance scene, Chaz wrote ‘Ai No Corrida’, a hit for Quincy Jones. Jankel also has composer credits for soundtracks, including D.O.A. and K2. He continues to release solo albums, and tour with The Blockheads.