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Delta Deep Delta Deep Review by Gary Hill So, you’ve never heard of Delta Deep? There’s a really good chance you’ve heard of some of the people involved in the group. The outfit includes Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots), Debbi Blackwell-Cook (Michael Buble, Luther Vandross) and Forrest Robinson (India Arie, Joe Sample). There are a number of special guests, too, including Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), David Coverdale (Whitesnake, Deep Purple) and Paul Cook (Sex Pistols). I love the blues rock sound of this thing. It’s a great album even without knowing who plays on it. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2016 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Bang the Lid The slide guitar at the start of this establishes this as a blues based rocker a bit like Led Zeppelin. As the vocals join, it has a more traditional blues sound in a way. The chorus brings more of that rock texture, though. This is soulful, hard edged and just so cool.

Whiskey This starts with a jazzy, mellow blues sound. The vocals really sell it in this mellower arrangement. That holds the cut until some scorching hot guitar screams out a solo later. This is classy, slow moving electric blues that really has a lot of meat on the bones.

Down in the Delta A scorching tune, this is part electric blues and part fiery heavy metal. The vocals are stellar on this thing. The whole cut just really rocks.

Treat Her Like Candy This is a mellower, soulful kind of rocker. It has an almost Motown kind of vibe to it, but with a full guitar based treatment.

Miss Me There is a real metal vibe to this cut. It’s more of a mainstream rocker. I love the vocal duet on this thing. The vocals really bring a lot of soul and blues to the table. The guitar solo is quite meaty, too.

Burnt Sally Old school electric blues merges with a Led Zeppelin styled rock sound. I love the powerhouse vocals on this. The organ adds a lot to the mix, too. This is a classy cut that really rocks.

Private Number Featuring David Coverdale, this is another that feels a bit like Motown to me. The duet on the cut works really well, but beyond that, it’s not really one of my favorites.

Shuffle Sweet Here we get a cut that’s more of a screaming hot blues rocker. The riff driving it is classy, but everything here works really well.

Black Coffee I dig this bluesy rocker a lot. It’s very much a traditional sounding piece, but with a bit of a modern edge.

Feelit That modernized Motown sound is present here. They bring some funk to the table, too. In some ways, this doesn’t feel all that different from something Prince might have done with the New Power Generation.

Mistreated Here we get a treatment of the classic Deep Purple song. This features Joe Elliott. This is a classy version that really rocks. The jam later, along with the female vocals, really brings a lot of magic to the piece.

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