Altered Five Blues Band - Billboard Blues Albums
In the first week of March 2020, I sat down with Altered Five Blues Band’s vocalist Jeff Taylor and guitarist Jeff Schroedl and afterward, wrote an article about their latest album and upcoming gig at Shank Hall.
“The Altered Five Blues Band logged a lot of miles in between the release of their fourth and fifth albums, several thousand of them were air miles,” the article began …
And then COVID struck, the gig was cancelled and travel stopped. Now, at last, their Shank Hall show is back on the calendar and a sixth album has been released, Holler if You Hear Me. Earlier this month it debuted at Number 3 on Billboard’s Blues Chart.
Schroedl sounds unfazed. “We had three trips to Europe scheduled for 2020, including festivals in France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Polan,” he says. “With all of that cancelled, we used the time to write new songs.”
The new material on Holler if You Hear Me continues along the route of their 2019 album, Ten Thousand Watts. The rhythm section of bassist Mark Solveson and drummer Alan Arber deliver the music with plenty of horsepower. Schroedl’s guitar lashes like the backside of a whip and Taylor’s commanding vocals drive home the hard-time lyrics. Keyboardist Raymond Tevich adds detail on piano and organ.
Holler if You Hear Me was recorded early this year in Nashville by Tom Hambridge, whose production credits include acclaimed bluesmen such as Buddy Guy and James Cotton. “Late last summer [2020], we started rehearsing in a garage with the door open, just like the old days!” Schroedl says. “Once winter hit, we did a few Zoom sessions but it wasn’t the same. Then just before the studio sessions, we started rehearsing again to shake the cobwebs off and work up the new songs.”
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Holler is their fourth album with Hambridge. “He has incredible instincts and a knack for interjecting productive ideas,” Schroedl explains. Like those classic Chess LPs, Holler was knocked out fast—in just five days. “For most of the songs, we did two takes or three at most,” Schroedl continues. “We swear he [Hambridge] has a photographic mind because he can hear something once and offer sharp comments. We work very quickly so it’s all fresh and live.”
Altered Five has joined the ranks of Short Stuff and Leroy Airmaster among the most successful bands to emerge from Milwaukee’s blues subculture. Some portion of that success came when they leaped from a tiny Minneapolis indie to Blind Pig, one of the most respected American blues labels. Ten Thousand Watts reached number 10 on Billboard’s blues chart, was all over Spotify and was heard almost daily on Sirius XM’s “Bluesville.”
They are eager to make up for the lost year. Altered Five will spend weekends playing the Midwest this fall and are lining up shows in 2022 around the U.S. and Europe. “One advantage for us,” Schroedl says of living in Milwaukee, “is that we are somewhat centrally located, and can travel to a lot of cities in one day.”
Altered Five Blues Band performs at Shank Hall on Saturday, October 9.
