CD review: Scott Weis Band – Raise Your Hands – 2023: Video, CD cover

Pennsylvania Blues Hall of Fame artist Scott Weis grew up in North Jersey and was quickly fascinated by the guitar and blues sound. He became a guest at the legendary House of Music and did odd jobs and guitar parts for major artists in order to earn some studio time with Charlie Conrad.

Scott made his way as a guitarist for several local bands before joining Premier Talent Agency NYC as a touring guitarist for many blues and rock artists. Towards the end of the 90s he took a break from touring. In 2011 he had the release ‘Almost There’. While the album was flying high in the charts, Scott was recovering from a broken neck, not knowing if he would make a full recovery.

A year later he was happily on stage with Dickie Betts. Many solo CDs followed and the Scott Weis Band has also undergone many line-up changes over the years. Now the new long player is ‘Raise Your Hand’ and it opens with the Delta blues and slide guitar inspired ‘Motherless Child’, with guest singers Cindy Mizelle, and quickly continues with the heavily charged slow blues ‘Shine Down’.

From the swamp boogie ‘Judgment Day’ it goes to the dark ‘Raise Your Hands’ and ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’, an original by The Beatles, completely adapted to Weis’s will with a big nod to Joe Cocker. The track ‘Mindless’ nails itself between the harder genre, just like the funky ‘Bitch Please’ and ‘Lost Myself’.

The things I love about every album we do is that they are a subtle reflection of the times and our life experience. For instance, we thought that Motherless Child was a perfect song to redo because we felt, in our day and age, that the collective had moved past racism and prejudice. But due to a small group of ignorant people, we have been faced with having to remind people that we are all the same. The songs on this record talk about our own experiences and influences through our interpretations and influences. My mom says she can always tell what’s going on in my life by listening to the new music. The song “Bring me Home” talks about the modern day blues and how it’s strayed from talking about life’s struggles and transcending them to marketing. Like gospel, blues was always sacred ground like gospel. You could always listen, learn, feel hardship and transformation, and hopefully learn from it. As far as the Scott Weis Band goes we are a solid core trio, then we go from there. We have been blessed over the years to have a few great musician friends who are the icing on the cake. Cindy Mizelle has written herself into being one of our favorite backing vocalists of our time. Our voices just complement each other, it’s a special friendship. The same goes for Bashiri Johnson-Percussion, and John Ginty- Keyboards. We consider their addition a special spice blend of our own and we are so thankful to have such renowned musicians as friends,- an interview with me said Blues – Soul – Rock guitarist Scott Weis.

The radio-friendly ‘Stay’ is perhaps the most accessible song, and then the Hendrix-inspired ‘Have You Ever Loved a Woman’ and the acoustic Delta blues song ‘Bring Me Home’ come blasting through the woofer.

Good looking! We recommend that you definitely buy this CD and enjoy it with all your heart.

Buy from here – New CD 2023