Gus Is Very Pleased He Need Not Endure The City Man Blues

We are stoked to launch another new song by Gus.

Very much in keeping with Gus’ great song writing style, City Man Blues goes straight to the heart of the life of the 9 to 5 drudgery suffered by those poor bastards caught up in the big city rat race.

It features:

Gus, as Writer, and on Lead Vocals and Guitar

Raymond on Bass and Backing Vocals. Raymond also did the Mixing / Production work.

Chris on Keyboards and Backing Vocals, and

Pete on Drums and Backing Vocals.

Most of us involved in PBGB shenanigans are lucky enough to live a lifestyle that does not include the daily donning of the suit and tie and heading off to the train station or bus stop early in the morning only to spend the better part of our weeks chained to a desk. Gus can empathise though, and lets us know just what he thinks the City Man endures.

It is very much in the Gus style – dollops of humour, a smattering of sus language, and a story line that every naughty boy can relate to.

City Man Blues brings a few firsts to the PBGB portfolio

It is the first song on which we feature Raymond Toms on bass. Indeed it is just Raymond’s second appearance on a PBGB song. Raymond is slotting into PBGB like a glove, and has attributes we really value, including being prepared to try new musical avenues. For a long time our Achille’s heel was the intermittent appearances of bass players, so we suggested Raymond might like to try his hand on the bass. Well he did, and he is doing a stellar job, as can be heard on City Man Blues. Keep it up Raymond !

It is the first song we have posted that has been produced by Raymond. Neil and Jan have been in Europe for a couple of months, and those of left behind were chuffed to be able to record and finalise an entire song in Neil’s absence. This is a good thing, in that it gives us confidence that all the wheels don’t necessarily fall of when Neil is away. It means we have more flexibility, and gives us the chance to take some of the production workload off Neil. And having two in-house producers will add some variety to our sounds. We think Raymond did a great job on the production of City Man Blues and look forward to giving him more time in the producer’s chair.

City Man Blues also brings a first in that it is the first PBGB song to feature Chris Ralfs on keyboards. Yep, Chris, normally heard on bass, wandered over to Fhrodo ( our classic Fender Rhodes piano ) during the recording of CMB and plunked down what we thought was a very passable keyboard line. So we kept it ! Well done Chris.

Lastly, the “shoop – shoop do whas” at the end of the song are our first four part harmonies! Everybody who played an instrument on the song gathered around a mic. and belted out the harmonies. Go team !!

It’s always lots of fun working on Gus’ songs, and this one was no different.

Have a listen to City Man Blues by clicking ‘here’ or by clicking on the title on the PBGB Juke Box on the left of screen. Enjoy !

Thanks Gus.