Popa Chubby – Stealing the Devil’s Guitar

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Stealing the Devil's Guitar

Good ol’ Popa Chubby – a.k.a. Ted Horowitz – keeps chuggin’ along and making solid records, especially when it comes to guitarslinging. A couple of tunes here seem like mere excuses to jam (including the instrumentals “Kinda Dicey” and “The Devil’s Guitar”) but the more rock-and-roll cuts like “Slide Devil Man, Slide” showcase the best parts of his act, with its killer slide and Chubby’s trademark spoken-word vocals. “Long, Deep, Hard, and Wide” is a hard-rocking stomper with stinging guitar, menacing vocal, and cool stories to go along with the music. “Smugglers Game” is a walking blues with sitar-sounding guitar and a big solo sound to change things up. “Back In My Baby’s Arms” has a nice old-school soul feel with a beautiful, melodic solo. Soul music makes several other appearances here, too, including the Strat heaven of “Why I Can’t Have You.” “Virgil and Smoky” is another story song, with a lyric that’s downright scary, delivered in a nasty, funky blues to match. It’s a definite highlight of the record.

In this day and age, it’s a real treat to have labels like Blind Pig delivering music by artists like Popa Chubby.



This article originally appeared in VG‘s Sep. ’06 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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