Rich DelGrosso & Jonn Del Toro Richardson "Time Slips On By"

This is a great disc by two great players! Rich DelGrosso and John Del Toro Richardson have made a very good mellow Texas-flavored cd in "Time Slips On By." DelGrosso gets to show off his mandolin skills and Richardson gets to show himself as a very fine guitarist. They both sing. Eight of the 14 songs here are by DelGrosso and six songs are penned by Richardson. The band around them is top-rate: Carl Owens on drums and percussion, Ed Starkey on bass, Nick Connolly on keyboards, Joel Guzman on accordion, Sonny Boy Terry on harmonica, and the great Texas Horns--Mark 'Kaz' Kazanoff on tenor sax, John Mills on baritone sax, and Al Gomez on trumpet. The band makes a backing for the two feature players.

I was hooked by the first 10 seconds of the opened "Baby Do Wrong," a Texas shuffle played great. And after that things never drop off--the level stays hot all the way thru. DelGrosso does a mandolin history lesson in "Mandolin Man" and a very fine turn on the 'Yank' Rachell-inspired "Hard To Live With." Richardson burns up the guitar frets on "Baby Please" and does a very fine soulful vocal turn on the love song "Katalin." About halfway thru the set they play a great song for those of us blues lovers stuck in the cold and ice of wintertime, "Summertime Is Here." I've been listening to that one about 5 times a day for the past week, and it really does seem to help. Other highlights include the Richardson song "Where's Laura?" and DelGrosso's opening on "Good Rocking Johnny" and Sonny Boy Terry's great harmonica break on "She's Sweet." Things wrap up with the "Please Don't Go," with DelGrosso on acoustic mandolin and Richardson on acoustic guitar. Wonderful. Give this one a chance and it will grow on you--or you could get hooked by the first 15 seconds. Either way, this is a disc to enjoy and treasure.

You can buy this cd at http://www.mandolinblues.com or at http://deltoroblues.wortdpress.com