Written by A 30-year-old guitar prodigy from New York who’s grown up in public, Solomon Hicks is still figuring out how to make the blues his own. On his second album, How Did I Ever Get This Blue?, he lets gratitude and good vibes do the talking, with a sound and style that is more about reassurance than revolution.
“I was exposed to so many genres,” he says. “In New York you can go uptown and hear organ trios, downtown and hear folk or rock, then salsa on the East side. That all shaped my sound.”
Recorded with, among others, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble drummer Chris ‘Whipper’ Layton, bassist Kevin McCormick (Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills), slide-guitar powerhouse Joanna Connor, the new album brings that musical restlessness to a polished, all-star setting.
“Each one was hand-selected,” Hicks says. “We wanted people who were open-minded – who could let the sound stretch a little but still stay true to the roots.”
That sound extends from traditional blues songs by Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland (Further On Up The Road) and John Lee Hooker (Dimples) to less predictable ones by Adele (Rumour Has It) and Bruno Mars (When I Was Your Man).
“When people hear my versions of those pop songs they’re shocked,” Hicks says. “They never expect to hear Adele sound like that.”
But it’s the two originals on the album that show where his heart lies. “How Did I Ever Get This Blue? is about admitting when you’re in a bad spot and figuring out how to get better,” he explains. “Life’s all about self-improvement. Once you get past the video games and the rock’n’roll lifestyle, it’s: how do you put positivity into the world?”
The companion piece I’m Burnin’ Up “is more my life story – ‘New York City, uptown, that’s where I lay my burdens down.’ It’s about getting held back, then coming back stronger.”
Hicks’s guitar playing is crisp and tasteful rather than raw. “Some days I feel like Muddy Waters, some days I feel like Led Zeppelin,” he says with a laugh.
Asked who he is playing this music for, he answers without hesitation: “Whoever’s listening. The next generation of kids who’ve only met a phone, not a guitar. People on the spectrum who can’t make it to shows. I feel it’s my duty to take this music forward the way the Stones and others did for Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.”
He’s not out to rewrite the rule book, and actually that’s fine. “As the years go passing by,” he says, coyly referencing the Albert Collins song, “I just want to keep putting good energy into the world.” Polite, poised and always upbeat, Solomon Hicks may not shock anyone, but he might just make them feel good.
How Did I Ever Get This Blue? is out now via Artone Label Group/Provogue Records.
