As time passes, there is a certain comfort to be gained from a conventional musical approach with the blues being the kind of musical genre that favours a straight down the line approach so, duly, that’s what Sweden’s Patrik Jansson band have given us with their third album “So Far To Go”.
It is therefore not difficult to imagine the Patrik Jansson Band achieving popularity at the many blues festivals that take place throughout Europe and Scandinavia in the summertime and it is also not difficult to imagine that those who might attend these events finding much to their taste in the nine songs that make up this album. For his part, Patrik Jansson has an everyman voice that suits the tell it like it is and like it always has been lyrics and, playing to his true strength, he balances his words with a notably flashier guitar style.
Of the songs, two are of particular note. “That 70’s Thing” for the song’s unstoppable nothing’s changed and nothing’s going to stop the groove vibe and the joyously upbeat “Can’t Get You (Out of My Head)” even if guest vocalist Thérese Thomsson nearly steals the show from the band.
“So Far To Go” may well be a standard modern day blues album but familiarity does not always have to breed contempt and the Patrik Jansson Band clearly demonstrate respect for all that the blues, as a modern day genre, represents.