(Modern Electric Blues) Damon Fowler - Sugar Shack - 2009 [BPCD5126], FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Fowler has been winning fans all over his native state of Florida with his exceptional skills on guitar, slide guitar, and lap steel. His sound is blues based, but there are hints of country, swamp rock, R&B, and swing in his playing and songwriting. Sugar Shack is his fourth album, and shows his growing confidence as both a songwriter and performer. "Some Fun" shows off Fowler's acoustic side; it's a rocking country-blues with Scott Key's slap-happy syncopated brush work adding to the song's drive and bright, hedonistic message. Fowler's cheerful vocal gives the tune a playful feel. "I Hope It's Gonna Rain" is a fatalistic, slow blues ballad. Fowler moans the lyric and plays a long, greasy solo that emphasizes the guitar's bass stings to give the arrangement a spooky vibe. "Wrong Side of the Road" has a slight reggae feel to the rhythm guitar while still remaining bluesy. He adds a concise country-rock solo to bring the tune home. "James," an R&B ballad, tells the story of a guy whose life is a long road of suffering and pain; his father was sent to jail while the boy was in grammar school his wife stole everything he ever owned, and he's slowly sinking into an alcoholic stupor, but Fowler manages to bring a bit of compassion to the tale, without irony or overstatement. The title track is a swampy jam that tells the story of an after-hours club where everything is for sale. Fowler's ominous lap steel solo has the right mix of danger and excitement. You can often tell how good a picker is by the new wrinkles he adds to classic tunes and Fowler completely reinvents the covers he picked for Sugar Shack. Merle Haggard's honky tonk weeper "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" gets dressed up in blue rock & roll clothes. Fowler's clanking rhythm work, and Chucky Riley's driving bass set up Fowler's smoking, angular solo. On his second chorus, Fowler pays tribute to Haggard's late guitarist Roy Nichols, by dropping quotes from the leads he played on tunes like "Mama Tried" and "Lonesome Fugitive." Billy Joe Shaver's "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal" gets turned into a bouncy country-rocker with a fine crackling solo from Fowler. "Third Rate Romance" hews closer to the version by the Amazing Rhythm Aces, with Fowler's vocal emphasizing the tawdry scenario while his lap steel adds growling asides.from Allmusic

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With his hybrid of roots rock, blues, and sacred steel, Florida native Damon Fowler started wowing audiences with his musical exploits as a teenager, building a reputation as one of the hottest young players on the scene. Adding songwriting and vocal skills to his repertoire over the years has brought him many accolades, with critics extolling his originality and maturity as well as his technical guitar expertise. In last year's "Best of Tampa" poll, Creative Loafing magazine named him "Best Guitarist... And Slide Guitarist... and Lap Steel Player... And Dobro Player."

Sugar Shack, Damon Fowler's Blind Pig Records debut showcases a fresh and exciting rising star at the height of his powers as a performer and writer. Damon's sparkling original compositions pair perfectly with well-chosen cover tunes from Billy Joe Shaver, Merle Haggard, and the Amazing Rhythm Aces. And Damon's soulful vocal delivery and instrumental prowess continually excite and delight. He said he was honored and excited about working with Blind Pig, noting that he's looking forward to furthering the blues tradition by "making roots music for my generation as well as for generations to come." Scott Cable, renowned for his work on Blind Pig's acclaimed comeback album by Nappy Brown, served as producer.

Fowler's guitar work has been compared to Johnny Winter and Jeff Beck, while his slide guitar has a hint of the late Duane Allman. He can play fiery guitar runs with the best of them, but it's his lyrical work on lap steel and Dobro that makes him stand out among the legions of guitar heroes.

Reviewing a recent performance in Illinois, Juke Joint Soul said, "Fowler's heavy helping of swamp rock and slide guitar blues conjured up a huge lightning storm. Having full command of his voice as an equal instrument to his guitar, Fowler can easily croon you to sleep as he could belt out a jump blues or a Credence-like swamper. This kid has got the tools to take on the big stage."

Born and raised in Brandon, Florida, just outside of Tampa, Damon Fowler first picked up the guitar at the age of twelve. After being shown a few chords, it was apparent that he was a natural. While his friends were listening to the musical flavor of the month, Damon was digging into the Blues, and was soon playing small clubs in and around the Tampa Bay area. Years later, with thousands of shows behind him, he is one of the most unique and seasoned artists on the national circuit.

Damon, already a master of the six string, developed a powerful command of the lap-steel, dobro, and slide guitars, and continues to astound audiences at every performance. Because of his versatility, he has been called upon to work with such acts as Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Robin Trower, Gregg Allman, Jimmy Vaughn, Junior Brown, Rick Derringer, Little Feat, The Radiators, Chris Duarte, Delbert McClinton, and numerous others.

Damon's first CD, released in 1999 and titled Riverview Drive, is a solid recording of all original material. After hearing Damon, Rick Derringer was sufficiently impressed to produce and perform on the project. Electric Blues called it "an all-around solid effort," with "plenty of strong guitar jams." In a review of Damon's second self-released CD, 2000's Roots And Branches, Robert Murphy wrote, "He doesn't just play the blues, he feels it and it shows in most everything he does. He has the style and guitar chops to please the guitar freaks and the singing ability and personality to please the women in the audience." In 2003, Damon released a sizzling live album called Live At Skipper's Smoke House. It garnered quite a bit of attention. As Gary Weeks wrote in Southwest Blues CD Review, "When one hears Fowler's shit kickin' slide on "Sweet Marmalade" and his ultimate Warren Haynes' slide impersonations on Johnny Winter's "TV Mama", you wonder how such a good thing can stay buried. Take a listen to the CD of The Damon Fowler Group Live and you won't need too much convincing... If you're not feeling a groove, then check your pulse."

Local, state and national audiences are flocking to Damon's sizzling stage shows. Described as having a 'take-no-prisoners' attitude, his trio generates powerful energy and presents a dynamic and dramatic delivery. Fans in the audience get swept up in the moment, and there's no doubt the guys on stage are having a ball performing.

Sugar Shack's producer Scott Cable remarked at the end of the sessions, "Working with Damon, I really understood why so many people are in his corner. He is talented, bright and just a very gifted artist without all of the usual ego and weirdness that sometimes accompany someone so talented. Catching someone like Damon on their way up is a refreshing experience."

From Blindpigrecords

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007

EAC extraction logfile from 26. November 2009, 20:39

Damon Fowler / Sugar Shack

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Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007

EAC extraction logfile from 26. November 2009, 21:38

Damon Fowler / Sugar Shack

Used drive : LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 12
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 320 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 2:26.60 | 0 | 11009
2 | 2:26.60 | 3:20.12 | 11010 | 26021
3 | 5:46.72 | 4:43.09 | 26022 | 47255
4 | 10:30.06 | 4:29.54 | 47256 | 67484
5 | 14:59.60 | 4:47.14 | 67485 | 89023
6 | 19:46.74 | 4:31.62 | 89024 | 109410
7 | 24:18.61 | 4:36.14 | 109411 | 130124
8 | 28:55.00 | 3:41.61 | 130125 | 146760
9 | 32:36.61 | 5:01.37 | 146761 | 169372
10 | 37:38.23 | 3:41.13 | 169373 | 185960
11 | 41:19.36 | 4:58.52 | 185961 | 208362
12 | 46:18.13 | 2:58.04 | 208363 | 221716

Track 1

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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [C795F47E]
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [9F07E0F0]
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [A3CFE121]
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Track 8

Filename C:\Rips\Damon Fowler - 2009 - Sugar Shack [FLAC]\08 - Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [6C6B3EBC]
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Filename C:\Rips\Damon Fowler - 2009 - Sugar Shack [FLAC]\09 - Third Rate Romance.wav

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Track 10

Filename C:\Rips\Damon Fowler - 2009 - Sugar Shack [FLAC]\10 - Wrong Side Of The Road.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [2F95C76B]
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Track 11

Filename C:\Rips\Damon Fowler - 2009 - Sugar Shack [FLAC]\11 - Don't Know Why I Love You.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [D7B6D3F4]
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Track 12

Filename C:\Rips\Damon Fowler - 2009 - Sugar Shack [FLAC]\12 - I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal.wav

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Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [97DAE3B3]
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All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

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PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.0.3 B1 build 1.0.3.0
Copyright (c) 2008, 2009 y-soft. All rights reserved
http://y-soft.110mb.com

ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
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