Bob Malone }-- Reviews

It starts with a slinky drumbeat, soon joined by a funky little electric piano lick and the sound of a swelling horn section. Then comes a bassline that sounds like a pimp bopping down the boulevard, and finally the raspy, world-weary vocal: "Between you and me, too many lovers have suffered..."

So goes the opening title track of Bob Malone’s latest, Like It or Not, and by the time the record ends with the words "last thing we need is another white guy singing the blues," you’ve taken a musical cross-country trip, from "Meet Me in Manhattan" to "Texas," with stops at the Crescent City, Memphis and Chicago along the way.

They are all places the L.A.-based Malone knows well from a decade-plus of touring the States, both as a support act for bands like the Neville Brothers and the Average White Band and as a headliner in countless clubs. Look for his piece in the new book Working Musicians, for Malone is the damn definition of the term. Which is to say that he is a people’s musician. The man is unafraid of unabashed sentimentality (try "Valentine’s Day" on for size) and the occasional slice of cornball humor (like the line "what I lack for brains I make up for in stupidity," from "Moderation"). He’s unafraid to be heartfelt, and with his piano leading the way, from barrelhouse blues to an intro resembling nothing so much as a classical étude, what comes across most on this record is simple emotional communication, from one heart to another. And like it or not, that takes guts.