Russ Green — Stone Cold
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
There is a problem. A major problem.
Before one word of such leaks out, a smoldering-then-eruptive prelude ushers in the kind of uneasy sense that sends eyes to dart back and forth and hearts to involuntarily speed up their pace. Thirty seconds of generalized nervousness spreads among the guitars and tom-toms. The harmonica tugs and tugs at the leash before busting free to climb above a steamrolling funk bassline for another 30 seconds.
One minute in, the picture begins coming into view:
“There’s 12 feet of water in her living room.
She called 911 and there’s nothing they can do …”
Then the killer line drops, guaranteeing that the bizarre is at hand:
“’Cause you know the rest of the house is just bone dry.”
Meet (or re-meet) Russ Green, the bringer of bad news. The Chicago native is back in play. Back to staying off the beaten trail by blazing his own. Back to making an album to follow up his 2018 debut, City Soul, that lit up Living Blues and Downbeat magazines as well as the stage at the Chicago Blues Festival. And back to bushwhacking that path with his harp’s reed-rattled edge.
Stone Cold rolls out from a muscled band (ensured by having Giles Corey man the guitar post) afforded lots of blowing room to air out 10 new originals that are not blues in ordinary terms. That makes all the more sense in knowing who Green’s two harpist mentors have been: James “Sugar Blue” Whiting (who famously rocketed from busking
on the streets one day to recording with the Rolling Stones the next) and Billy Branch (who fathered Sons of Blues, the S.O.B.s, in 1977, and is scheduled to headline with them at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival on Saturday, June 6). Both are often considered modernist in terms of approach to the instrument as well as to the music itself. So when Green performs acrobatics in the upper registers for both his solos in “Waitin’ On You” or avoids typical lyric couplets to frame the yearn in “Need You So Bad,” the message gets sent: The man delivers blues his way.
Not to mention that surreal “12 Feet of Water.”
Writing sticks to the basic tenets of the blues. In other words, life’s dread realities: strapped,
duped, deserted, crushed, sorely discontented. Kicking off the 50-minute venting session is “Lint Redux,” a tale about being busted and broke—to the point of one’s pockets even being devoid of … lint. The “redux” credential is warranted for picking right up where “Lint In My Pocket,” its prequel, left off in 2018. This sequel is markedly different, with its composure instantly transformed by the slide guitar bringing newfound grit to the stomp. Green’s harping runs roughshod over everything.
The title track emerges out from a solitary organ heard shooting plumes high into the air. It’s quite the stately introduction. However, in no time the mood darkens and the grandeur vaporizes as the whole band rushes in, and never stops rushing. Caught up in its own momentum, the song sprays shrapnel via lyric lines centered around a blackhearted woman. “She’s stone cold,” Green keeps reiterating—always adding, “You better believe I sleep with my eyes wide open.” The gun-em-down “Hey Man” is no less wrapped tight. For a change of plans, “Nobody Knows” unplugs.
“I Believe” is the slow drag of the bunch. When Green’s tar-thick voice isn’t laying out the case for his crushing heartache, his harp is continually wringing out a series of burly, brutish fills that lure you in, deeper and deeper, by building anticipation for when the pressure will eventually blow out by way of a solo that cuts against the band’s smooth flow. “I Believe” requires a pair of such release valves.
The final two tracks work blues with more standard textbook characteristics: “Troubled World,” a bumping shuffle with deep swells, and “Boogie Joint,” a madly boogying racer. Invoked between the two of them are mojo references, roadhouse salutes, plus one of Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon’s philosophies from 1957: Live the life you love, love the life you live.
Yet, for as commanding as his voice is—capable of twisting out a cry of sorts from that dense bellow—you can feel Green just itching to raise that harp up to his mouth whenever painting his own songs with his own shade of blue.
Label: Overton Music
Release date: 5/29/26
Artist website: Russ Green Music.com
Reviewed by Dennis Rozanski