Review: Chris Bergson Band 'Comforts of Home' (2024)

Review: Chris Bergson Band ‘Comforts of Home’

By Jim Hynes

Long hailed as one the best songwriters in blues, this quote about guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Chris Bergson’s guitar playing is one that resonates. “Chris Bergon plays the kind of guitar you can build a house on – It’s B.B. meets Steve Cropper meets John Scofield.” (ROLL Magazine).

Bergson’s credentials stretch to sideman for Norah Jones, Hubert Sumlin and Levon Helm to Associate Professor of Guitar at Berklee College of Music where he teaches guitar privately as well as Slide Guitar and Songwriting. Comforts of Home is his twelfth album as a leader or co-leader and the Chris Bergson Band’s first since 2017. This thematic project embraces family, biological and chosen, with personal songs that capture the highs and lows, and challenges that many of us have faced at one point in our lives.

Bergson and his wife, Kate Ross, wrote all twelve songs, with assistance on a few tracks from soul singer and frequent collaborator Ellis Hooks and multi-instrumentalist Craig Dreyer. Hooks sings on three tracks while Dreyer does not appear on the album. Core band members are Moses Patrou (piano, various keys, percussion, and backing vocals), Matt Clohesy (bass) and Diego Voglino (drums and backing vocals). In the spirit of family Bergson invites longtime collaborators on horns Jay Collins (saxophones) (Levon Helm Band), Michael Blake (tenor sax) (Dr. Lonnie Smith) and trumpeter Reggie Pittman (Jaimoe’s Jassssz Band). Special guests are longtime cohorts – vocalists Alexis P. Suter and Vicki Bell, daughter Chloe Ross, acclaimed pianist Dave Keyes, and legendary drummer Bernard Purdie.

Bergson and Ross began writing these songs when emerging from the pandemic. Two of the favorite NYC venues and musical homes, Jazz Standard and 55 Bar had both closed and his band was without regular gigs. So, these songs, while personal, are also deeply cathartic and relatable. Bergson offers, “…So much is falling apart, leadership and institutions have failed us, facts and truth don’t seem to matter. Bad for humanity, but …that’s the blues.” This is far from a blasting, flashy in-your-face blues album. That’s not Bergson. Instead, he leans toward emotional songwriting and the music sits right at the intersection of blues and soul.

Opener “Feelin’ Good Today” finds Bergson in a soulful groove both vocally and with his crisp guitar chops as Patrou underpins the sound with a Memphis-styled B-3 organ. “Retribution” features most of the guests with Bergson on the vocal lead backed by Hooks, Suter and Bell soaring above the three-piece horn section. Relationships with Suter and Beel run deep, tracing to the days of Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles and more recently on tours together in France. The funky bass line owes to Clohesy and about the Hooks-Bergson this writer dubbed them “a modern-day, blues-infused Sam & Dave” in a prior review. Hooks also takes to the mic on the horn slathered co-write “Laid Up (With My Bad Leg in Lenox) and the rollicking “Think About It Twice,” where Bergson cuts loose his axe. Check out the leader’s fiery slide chops on the former as well.

Two other warm tunes are the ballads, the title track, and the touching “Chloe’s Song,” originally written for the couple’s baby daughter who is now a teenager, who sings on the track. The chorus “welcome home” on the latter just drips with emotion while the former represents one of Bergson’s most heartfelt vocals on record, with that indelible sad image of “left to stare out at the rain.”

Pianist Dave Keyes and Bergson worked together in Hubert Sumlin’s Band and have been playing together for about fifteen years, poised to tour Europe this coming October. Keyes plays on the aforementioned “Laid Up” and on the standout track, released as a single and video, “You Lied,” which also features legendary R&B drummer Bernard Purdie. On the latter, we hear the complete package – Bergson’s blistering guitar, a funky, not-quite-like NOLA but Bergson’s trademark NYC blues meets soul groove.

As mentioned in this writer’s reviews, the best blues albums are the ones with great songs. This is Bergson’s most well-crafted, fully realized album to date, a boon to his loyal fans and a great entry point for those unfamiliar with his music.

“Comforts of Home”

1. 

   Judith BergsonJune 11, 2024 at 5:47 pm - Reply

   A great review to A GREAT CD!