The latest offering from the VBB does exactly what it says on the tin. As the title suggests, Heavy City Blues is essentially a rock and blues album with filled with some slick blues guitar and thumping rock rhythms from the Latin blues masters.
The opening track Shake It has a pumping rock riff and is a strong opener. The Spanish influences of Santana and the fuzzy Gary Moore licks on Back To My Roots can easily be picked out in this tasty blues track. There are some worthy songs too, Rock n Roll Circus, Sin City and Love Hurts, but the album largely plays safe. Despite the guitar solos and riffs the album fails to offer anything that really makes it stand apart. With 20 albums in 22 years the band are still going strong and Javier Vargas plays with passion throughout the album with no signs of letting up. The album also features Carmine Appice (drums) Paul Shortino and Bobby Alexander (vocals). These guys are a talented bunch of musicians and Vargas has a lot of respect in the music world, but this album doesn't quite do them the justice they deserve. It's worth a listen but sadly it lacks thecojones of some of VBB's other work.