Texas Platters

In a brief note on her fourth full-length release in a career stretching back to Austin's late-Seventies/early-Eighties blues heyday, Kathy Murray describes this latest dispatch as empowerment: "Taking your power and embracing the freedom to love deeply! To open your heart over and over again, even if you get hurt. To honestly grow and change, and maybe have fun doing it!" Whether she hits that philosophical goal is up to the listener, but what's obvious is that Murray and her husband/guitarist Bill "Monster" Jones and a support cast of local luminaries – including rockabilly bass wizkid Dylan Cavalier, plus Floyd Domino and his boogie woogie piano – had loads of fun traversing the smorgasbord of blues stylings presented herein. There's a San Antonio rumba of drums-and-horn R&B triplets on "First Do No Harm," the title track's Albert King-style funk, propulsive rockabilly in "Grow Some," and even an irresistible, accordion-charged romp through Cleveland Crochet's swamp-pop nugget "Sugar Bee." Jones' slashing guitar lines and Murray's smoky purr cut through beautifully.