Like walking in late to the dive bar straight in the middle of a blues band’s funky groove, as a wailing sax pumps into an already on-fire guitar solo, for The Lilliston Effect it’s all about the opposite end of the spectrum from any overbearing seasonal minor-key maelstroms that take control this time of year. It’s about the upbeat for the Nashville-area jazz quintet as it opens its third studio album, Blues March, a breath of fresh air released out of East Nashville’s The Bomb Shelter earlier in 2024.
The Lilliston Effect is comprised of blues journeymen John Paul Lilliston on guitar, with Ron Gomez and Matt Sibilia on bass and drums, respectively, Geno Haffner on keys and organ, and Don Jacobsen on sax. With “Hip Stitch,” following the aforementioned self-titled opener, it seems the latest album sets a theme similar to the soulful stylings of G.E. Smith and Leon Pendarvis’ Saturday Night Live bands. Musicianly discipline and camaraderie become evident early as The Lilliston Effect’s individual solos and instrumental stylings within a piece steadily, soulfully swap out comfortable control of the melody. The band continues through a checklist of blues structures along its Blues March, such as “Long Walk Home Blues,” a little rockabilly-swing with hints of Cuban mambo on the piano, as well as the “no-blues-in-the-title” songs, such as sitcom-themed “The Slouch,” a full-on sax tune mixing the blues feel of the Kings of Rhythm with the Peanuts band.
“The Doo Wop Blues” stands as Lilliston’s old-school, doo-wop swing with high-end guitar sounds sliding up and down the frets for a surfer melody and Hawaiian beach feel pretty enough to take your baby out for a sunset drive.
“Blues Vera Cruz” is a lower-register Dick Dale-type surfer tune with some spooky hints, another out of Lilliston’s catalog perfect for a Tarantino soundtrack. Elongated lead guitar punches pierce through with an exotic flavor strengthened by the sax accompaniment; the song has a cool little Egyptian vibe to it at the end.
“Toppers” continues the SNL jam feel, but more as if the band was jamming at the after-party in a club in the middle of the night, while the swing number “Coda” harkens back to The Blues Brothers Band, with a Hammond working beside a Stevie Ray Vaughan-stylized lead guitar line and horn section, for an intensity that could cover The Palace Hotel Ballroom.
If it hasn’t been stylish and disciplined enough already, “Over the Top Pt. 1” takes the “starting right in the middle of a wide-open live jam” and “great foundation for comfortable solos” notions to the next step, stretching out the instrumentalists and the genre’s possibilities as Lilliston’s guitar gets into “Helter Skelter” territory, immediately contrasted by a burning reggae groove on “Chatters.”
“Going Down” is a good highway drive song on Blues March, but you’d probably be alone here (instead of taking your baby out for a sunset drive), as the mood sets an outing meant more for a drug deal or knife fight. Haffner switches to a killer organ in this one alongside Sibilia’s cymbal-heavy playing and deep blues-accented rhythm licks from Lilliston.
Then the sax takes over.
On “The Minor Blues,” a piano, soulmate-matched to a muted guitar strum, embodies a highway drive coming back, successfully, from the drug deal or knife fight . . . and then the sax!
If there was a Howlin’ Wolf homage on this album, it’d be the blues drive of “The Lilliston Boogie,” a surprisingly controlled, seemingly chaotic upbeat smashing of all the instruments together, in tune with the slinky shuffle of Canned Heat’s late-’60s chestnut “On the Road Again.”
Find The Lilliston Effect’s Blues March across the icons at Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Reverbnation, with full links found at linktr.ee/thelillistoneffect. Lately, The Lilliston Effect has been playing Arrington Vineyards, one of the last nights at Mayday Brewery, Nashville’s Brown’s Diner, and even Madison’s Eastside Bowl. Catch the band’s schedules on Instagram and Facebook.
