When one thinks of powerhouse, female blues vocalists from the 70s, the obvious name on the tip of everyone's tongue is Janis Joplin. And while there's no doubting just how big of a gap there is between Janis and most of her peers, the only one other woman who could come close is Maggie Bell, the lead singer of the highly underrated blues-rock outfit, Stone the Crows. With their more playful take on barroom blues, Stone the Crows had a rather enlightened vibe to them that never seemed like it should mix well with their soulful, working-class grit. But it did. Never was their giddily raunchy brand of blues in fuller swing than on their third album, Teenage Licks. The chemistry between Bell and guitarist Les Harvey is entrancing, especially when they momentarily break into big, bad rock melodies, as they do for "Keep On Rollin" and "One Five Eight." Harvey, in particular, is chockfull of surprises, as he deftly moves from the swaggering blooze-rock of "Big Jim Salter" into the effervescent funk of "Mr. Wizard," while still recognizing when he needs to move into the background, hanging out in the background with some soft noodling for their take on Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice." Harvey's effortless style of playing was difficult to replace, as the Crows found out after his death during the production of their next album, Ontinuous Performance.
