I had never heard of D.K. Harrell when his debut album, The Right Man, came out just two years ago. I was immediately in love with his music, and I made the easy choice to declare it our Pick Hit for July 2023.

Since then, I began counting the time until we would get another album from Harrell. Finally, it's here!

It wasn't just me that had become a big D.K. Harrell fan, as The Right Man earned a Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Artist in his rookie season.

The Louisiana native, heavily inspired by the blues of B.B. King, made the jump from Little Village to Alligator for his latest release, "Talkin Heavy."

What's he done for an encore? More of the same creative songwriting, great blues guitar from his red Gibson 355, and booming out the blues with his powerful voice. The common thread between the two albums is that they were both recorded and produced at Greaseland in San Jose, with Greaseland head honcho Kid Andersen running the show.

The opener arming the dozen cuts on Talkin Heavy is the funky blues, "A Little Taste," with Harrell asking that woman to stop playing hard to get as he's just looking for a little taste. His B.B.-style guitar licks are complemented by a tight, robust horn section. The mid-tempo blues shuffle, "Grown Now," has Harrell bragging about having made it, while the title cut slows the tempo and takes a more serious tone as Harrell sings about some of society's ongoing problems.

Harrell makes a slight change to the common acronym PTSD on "PTLD," an up-tempo contemporary soul/blues about a friend's post-traumatic love disorder. Lisa Leuschner Andersen and Vicki Randle provide background vocals while Derrick "D'Mar" Martin drives the song along with his propulsive drumming.

The pace slows considerably on the late night blues, "Life's Lesson," as Harrell sings about lessons he learned from his grandfather after he lost his father. Harrell isn't just a B.B. King imitator, but his guitar work sure reminds of the great one. Jim Pugh contributes very tasteful piano accompaniment.

Pugh also stars on the intro to the gospel-like blues"Good Man," his own composition which starts with a slow tempo before turning into a rollicking soul/blues as Harrell lists his good traits to his woman. He then takes a similar approach to B.B"s "Rock Me Baby" on his original "Vibe With Me," as he's inviting his friend to join him with a big bag of California green.

"Into The Room" is a funky, up-tempo blues with a different sound coming from Aaron Lington's flute playing before we get a scintillating guitar solo from Harrell. Leuschner Andersen and Randle are back with effective background vocals.

Harrell packs a lot of emotion into the slow soulful blues, "No Thanks To You," gently vocalizing how he has recovered from that woman's mistreatment of him when he was down and out. We hear Don Dally coming in at times on both violin and viola. A very good song of redemption. He then gets a little risqué on the up-tempo blues shuffle "Liquor Stores And Legs," as he's going out to celebrate late at night despite the warnings from his family about the two things are that are open late at night. Great guitar work here.

The slow blues, "What Real Men Do," has Harrell telling his woman the good things he's been doing for her because it's what real men do, including putting his cell phone on silent, a rarity in our current times.

Harrell takes it to church on the closing number, "Praise These Blues," relaying the similarities between singing the blues and singing the gospel. Alabama Mike, Anthony Boyd, and Deb Lubin form the background choir, sounding like more than three voices. A fun way to end this album, especially at the end of the song when the tempo goes even higher and it sounds like he's leading the entire congregation down to the riverside.

D.K. Harrell has come out with another winner, proving that he's one of the next big blues stars on the horizon. Talkin Heavy is just one more important addition to his impressive blues rèsumè.

--- Bill Mitchell