Grow: Just B distinctive and familiar but outside the box
by: John Gardiner
To listen to Just B’s record Grow is indeed to grow as a fan of the hardworking and dedicated Canadian singer/songwriter. The music reminds me of where rock ‘n’ roll should have gone back in the mid seventies before it started to crash and burn. And the music cannot be labelled other than to call it once and future rock ‘n’ roll.
Just B (Justin Burgess) is the consumate musician moving with apparent ease from percussion, to guitars, to keys, adding great vocal lines and soaring melodies, but on Grow he has some help. Sidemen like Bill Durst of Thundermug fame adds some wonderful guitar on several of the tracks and Jim Corbett is along on bass.
The record has no weak spots, each track delivering an emotional punch, almost all with a real social relevance that makes you listen and then think about what the music says. Just B. sees the decay and moral corruption of our society and comments relentlessly; something any true artist must do. You cannot make art for art’s sake it should attempt to move an appreciative audience to action.
The title track, Grow, is an enormously wonderful tune that drives home a solid message and leaves no doubt where the artist stands……..On the other hand, all tunes aren’t of the hard driving variety, some, like the whimsical Watercolour, move gently along and deliver a more soothing result….
I am constantly struck by the level of maturity Just B brings to his work most tunes speak to every person on the planet, painting a bleak picture of a consumer-mad, obsessive society that simply cannot get it right…..
This is really good listening for the socially conscious and it should be required listening for those whose social conscience has gone missing, replaced by an apparent need to consume as much material junk as possible…..Good stuff…..Good stuff, indeed…