Kris Barras Band: Lucky 13 Review

Lucky 13 is the latest album from the Kris Barras Band and opens with “Heart on Your Sleeve,” a fast paced powerhouse of rock that stays put in your head like a well-trained attack dog. Kris plays a special guitar, a Fender Strat made out of solid silk. Well, that’s what it sounds like anyway; my physicist friend assures me that is actually impossible.

Vocal wise Kris is as punchy as an MMA fighter, which is good because that’s his other job. Kris is joined by Phoebe Ions who shines on my second favorite track, “Tearing Me Apart.”

In addition to silky strats and well-buttered voices, Kris Barras is backed by Ricky Mitchell on the bass, Matt Vowels on Keys, with two drummers on the album, Will Beavis and Jon Perrin. There’s also some spot on back up vocals and my favorite element in any blues album, some great harmonica.

A highlight track was “I Got Time” perhaps because it reminded me a bit of the Reverend Peyton’s Big damn Band “Something for Nothing,” but with a little less gravel and sand paper, and a little more spit and shoe polish in its place.

Kris who has been a featured lecturer at the Academy of Music and Sound and is also a published author who has written a plethora of guitar technique articles for magazines. A veteran in the UK music scene, Kris has also toured the US and Europe as a solo artist, doing some session work as well. Kris obviously practices what he preaches, and in the case of Lucky 13 do as I say and as I do, and get this album.

The Review 8.5/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– Heart on Your Sleeve
– Too Dumb to Care
– Rock ‘n Roll Running Through My Veins
– Tearing Me Apart
– I Got Time

The Big Hit

– I Got Time

Review by Jeremy Schantz

Buy the album: Amazon