Connors, Loren “Night Through: Singles and Collected Works 1976-2004″ [Family Vineyard]

Loren MazzCane Connors is a supremely talented purveyor of avant-garde guitar blues. It was a style of music he created and continuously developed into directions even he was unaware. Connors dug heavily on blues inspired artists like Cream, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix and would subsequently trace those influences back to the Delta? Delta blues that is. The man’s powerful sound kept evolving with time to include jazz, gospel, and even contemporary indie & avant rock elements. He was a musician and an artist on a pure musical trip; a journey archived in this indispensable collection. Connors also developed dark reflective artwork which, along with his Irish ancestry, motivated, defined and expanded his impressively beautiful self released music. These three discs contain three decades of Connors seven-inch singles either unreleased or featured on compilations.

Connors is primarily an instrumental guitarist but occasionally slips his own sweet singing into the mix. Numerous songs are shorter blues tunes harkening to his days in New Haven, Connecticut. Other songs push the avant boundaries recalling his whirlwind introduction to New York’s overwhelming urban environment. That transition has most recently progressed into more improvised & loosely structured modern avant rock, but the blues still weeps from his signature Stratocaster. Connors stunning originality, edgy sonic ability, and emotive sensibility retain their challenging appeal coaxing multiple listens for the whole Night Through and beyond. Unrivaled and excellent. Disc 1 is pretty calm & bluesy. Disc 2 is dirtier crunch, distorted soaring frequencies, and resonant pain struck yearning with rich tones. Disc 3 returns to a slower, gloomier & melancholic beauty eventually paying homage to Miles Davis and featuring live music with his wife Suzanne Langille as Haunted House. Thrilling!