Nigel Egg: Press/Reviews

Nigel Egg is another one of those kind souls that seem to keep popping into my awareness. I met Nigel at one of my first DEMO shows as an intern in the summer of 2007. The Twin Cities-based Englishman's self-depreciating sense of humor, skillful slide-guitar work, and passionate harmonica playing (along with a being a relentless DEMO performer) have made a lasting positive impression on me.

So it is with great pleasure that I blog about his first proper album, the appropriately titled, Big Bang Baby Boom. The aforementioned sense of humor comes across very well on tracks like the delta-blues number You Can't Sing The Blues With an English Accent, the folky pot comedy The Birds and The Bees and The Bud, and the rootsy home-owners' tune Going to Home Depot.

Although, all good satirist sometimes bomb and Nigel is no exception. I'll never forget the time I heard Nigel perform the well-intentioned, yet uncomfortably honest and politically incorrect blues song Black Man at the Door before an unreceptive mixed race audience. Also, despite some interesting gang-style vocals, title track Big Bang Baby Boom stumbles upon its own irreverent baby boomer references...maybe I'm just too young to care.

In my opinion, Nigel is at his best when singing straight from his heart. Tracks like the harmonica-driven Lucky Man Blues, the soulful When I Was You, and the sentimental finger-picker I Wish I Knew Where Katie Was; showcase a feel-good singer-songwriter skilled at communicating how grateful he is for everything.

Watch the video below to see Nigel earn some laughs performing You Can't Sing The Blues With an English Accent at a DEMO showcase in August 2009.

 

Nigel Egg who plays a mix of bluesy folk music, really hits his stride with what I think might be either his only CD release or at least the first one released in awhile.

What he has really accomplished, is to create something that usually sounds all the same and create his own outlook on it. Writing the blues about ordinary things and using humor to lighten it up.

Writing songs about Going To Home Depot, Kids staying out late and whether to tell your kids about your past drug use. “The Birds and The Bees and the Bud”. It’s all the day to day stuff we can relate to.

Since Egg usually plays his shows by himself with an acoustic guitar and his harmonica. I am glad he didn’t go too crazy on background music. It’s there, but it just serves as a background for his songs and his style.

This album might more appeal to an older crowd which I am quickly approaching, but if  you dig some lighthearted blues you should give it a listen.

$3.47 out of $5

 

By Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily Planet

August 29, 2010

Singer-songwriter Nigel Egg is a talented humorist who doesn't bend over backward to take himself too seriously. "I write songs," he says, "about stuff I know, feel, sense personally and also about what my friends and family tell me. I never had a hellhound on my trail and I've never worked on a killing floor, but what I do sing about is real, and that comes through in the performance. Okay, some things are made up, but when you write a song, you can't let the facts get in the way of the truth."

It's that offhand attitude that characterizes his album Big Bang Baby Boom as he goes about playing nicely understated blues guitar and harmonica, singing lowkey. For "The Birds and the Bees and the Bud," he laments tongue-in-cheek, "What should I tell the kids about smoking pot/ Just say no/ Yeah, right, but what else have I got/ Should I say I never tried or admit I smoked a lot?"

 

Egg has won multiple awards from organizations like the Minnesota Folk Festival and the Austin (Texas) Songwriters Group. He's also won honors at the Great River Festival (LaCrosse, Wisconsin) and the Highway 61 Folk Festival (Mahtowa, Minnesota), and placed a prestigious second at the Telluride (Colorado) Blues and Brews festival's Acoustic Blues Competition. So it's a documented matter of public knowledge that he knows what he's doing when it comes to putting a song together and delivering it to an audience.

For some reason, he feels free in his songs to reduce black people to being objects instead of human beings. His number "Black Man at the Door"—the fact that Egg went out of his way to bring this particular one to my attention speaks to his insensitivity—finds sport in a scenario that has a man comfortably sitting in his living room waiting for a black man to have enough sense to go away and stop knocking on a suburban white man's door, expecting someone to actually go see what he wants. Well, having talent is no guarantee you're going to respect people's sensibilities.

The songs on Big Bang Baby Boom by and large are deft little ditties finding the lighthearted side of everyday life. "Going to the Home Depot" has lines like, "You hugged me in the shower/ The one I built brand new/ You kissed me in the kitchen/ I remodeled just for you/ But now you just act cool/ When I build you something new/ Tell me what you really want/ And I'll go buy the tools/ I'm going to Home Depot one more time." Then there's "I Wish I Knew Where Katie Was"; any parent can relate to the nerve-racking anxiety of I-hope-she-gets-home-in-one-piece-so-I-can-kill-her waiting for your teenager to finally decide to show up at whatever hour in the late night or early morning.

Copyright: 

©2010 Dwight Hobbes

CD review: Nigel Egg’s return to music may be too cute

If being close to greatness made one great, English bluesman Nigel Egg would be in the Rock ’n’ roll Hall of Fame.

By: John Ziegler, Duluth News Tribune

Big Bang Baby Boom

If being close to greatness made one great, English bluesman Nigel Egg would be in the Rock ’n’ roll Hall of Fame.

In high school, his band Blind Lemon opened for David Bowie at a club in Canterbury, England.

A year later, his group Nexus (with a member of Savoy Brown on bass) was produced by the first manager of the Rolling Stones and attracted the attention of the legendary Chas Chandler (Jimi Hendrix, The Animals, Slade, etc.).

After that group dissolved, Egg jammed with the likes of Supertramp, Mott The Hoople and others at The Cabin in Shepards Bush, London.

He certainly was in the right circles at the right time, but then so were millions of others who also are not in any Hall of Fame.

He’s made the U.S. home since the early ’70s. He made his living as a player and instructor until the mid-’80s before becoming a corporate wiz for a quarter-century and now, coming full circle, is back making music full-time.

His new release, “Big Bang Baby Boom,” is almost as varied as his past. It’s a mix of blues, humor, novelty and pop-rock tunes that will appeal to some while making others reach for their John Hammond collection.

The title track speaks of cities’ outward expansion amid the clutter of beige malls and Tyvek-clad homes.

“You Can’t Sing the Blues with an English Accent” is a semi-humorous attempt to jump on the same old stereotype regarding all the external factors about who can and can’t sing the blues. The unfortunate reality is that far too many people believe that color, economic status and geographical birthplace all play a role in someone’s ability to play or sing the blues, all of which is complete balderdash. It is, was, and always will be the internal factors that rule.

“Lucky Man Blues” reminds me of Martin Mull’s classic “Straight Talk About The Blues” as Egg wonders how he can possibly get the blues when he has not just one, but two of all the material possessions he’s ever dreamed of owning.

“I Wish I Knew Where Katie Was” is the ramblings of an over-anxious parent worrying about the return from a night out by his high school age daughter.

“Going to Home Depot” is a cute little ditty in a kind of Jimmie Rodgers (the singing brakeman, not the great blues rhythm guitarist) style. It’s the tale of a husband whose wife is growing disenchanted with his Bob Villa-esque skills.

“My Time” has an almost Mose Allison vibe to it.

Other songs include the vexing question of how to approach the parent-to-child talk about drinking and drugs; kid-damaged vehicles; making the most of one’s remaining years; a Lucinda Williams cover; and more.

His given name is Nigel Eccleston, but he decided to call himself Nigel Egg. Some may find that cute, which oddly is how I might describe this disc. Yes, there is a mix of styles, but they all seem to bend toward being “cute.” If cute is your thing, then this disc might be for you. Some might, however, put cute in the same bin at the record store as “sappy,” “schmaltzy” and “schticky.” If that’s the case, look instead for the newest discs from Robin Rogers, Paul Geremia, Guy Davis, Corey Harris or scores of other very talented artists who leave cute on the curb.

John Ziegler has worked in the music industry for 36 years as a radio host, interviewer, record producer and professional musician.

Nigel Egg / “You Can’t Sing The Blues With An English Accent”

Genre: Blues/comedy/novelty

Label: Spiff Key Records

Recorded at: Natural Sound Studio (St. Paul)

Produced by: Nigel Egg and Steve Janega

Website: www.nigelegg.com

Personnel: Nigel Egg (vocals, guitar, harp), Richard Kronick (bass), Dale Peterson (keyboards), Martin Wolfe (drums), Steve Janega (percussion, vocals)

Upcoming gig: Egg plays 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at Amazing Grace Bakery (394 Lake Ave. S.; (218) 723-0075). No cover.

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