Moreland and Arbuckle: Live in Peoria

By: Jesse James Mazzoccoli

The Illinois River, a massive iron bridge that stretches across it, and a pale blue sky that threatened rain like a school yard bully, served as the backdrop at the Peoria, IL Steamboat Days celebration, June 18, 2010. It looked like the perfect day for a blues concert, and minus the erratic weather, turned out to be one of the best shows I’ve seen in awhile. Playing tunes from their latest release, Flood, Moreland and Arbuckle commanded the stage with their brilliant concoction of Mississippi-esque Blues and high energy Southern rock. These guys are a welcome break from the 12-bar form in a Robert Johnson-like manner, telling a story of tragedy and overcoming it from chord to chord.

Their untraditional instrumentation contributed to their gritty, intense sound: three-piece band with lead singer/blues harpist, drummer, and cigar box picker serving as the bassist/guitarist. Aaron Moreland plays a Partaga Cigar box guitar that a friend of his in Memphis made for him. It has four strings on it, the lowest being a high bass string, 0.75 gauge, and the upper three strings are guitar strings A, E, and A from lowest to highest. This “power chord” open tuning he uses allows him to seemingly play bass on the lowest string with his ever-steady thumb, while simultaneously playing harmonies and howling blues solos with his fingers.

Check Out GI’s Interview with Aaron Moreland

When Dustin Arbuckle belts out the vocals for tunes like “Before the Flood” and “The Legend of John Henry,” it’s hard to remember that they’re from 20th century Kansas and not the 19th century Mississippi delta. Influenced by the greats, such as Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Lee McBee, and Sonny Terry, Arbuckle is a fine front man that I’m sure you’ll hear more from in the future.

Another impressive characteristic of their performance is that for the entire show they only played in two keys, and no two songs sounded alike. Drummer Brad Horner, was fun to watch on his 24″ 3-piece Mapex Kit and his Black Panther snare drum. He made more use out of that three-piece than most guys do out of twelve piece kit. What a pleasure to watch him work.

The crowd loved Moreland and Arbuckle’s intense, raw blues sound, and anyone who had the pleasure of witnessing these guys play are sure to be back for more.

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