Aaron Pollock – Call the Coroner Blues: A Sanctuary of Soul-Soaked Sublimity –

There are 11 albums and a myriad of prestigious accolades behind Aaron Pollock, with him more than primed to become the blues guitar virtuoso of his generation. His recent seminal single, Call the Coroner Blues, asks you to forget tired expectations of blues and step onto his metaphorical front porch for a moment. The guitar mastery is only a fraction of the alchemy; his seraphically warm sense of soul draws you into a front porch-esque vignette that shrugs off the usual restraint of the genre, turning into an easy-listening earworm that invites you into the reverie of escapism.

The lyrics flirt with the quasi-macabre while refusing to chill the bones; instead, Pollock sings as though he is reaching into the sanctuary of sublimity, refracting that bliss into a piece that keeps the blues scales subtle, a nuanced nod to his talents that never need to overreach to make you recognise his intuitive relationship with his fretboard and his way of making each note the conduit of his soul.

Based in Australia, Pollock cut his teeth as a street performer before fast-tracking to international stages; by 22, he was already a finalist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and now, at 28, he has 11 self-produced albums under his belt and a reputation for packing out rooms across the States.

Across releases that move from psychedelic soundscapes to raw country blues and tender acoustic ballads, his entrancing fingerpicking turns one guitar into a conversation of many voices while his dynamic vocal delivery keeps conviction and control at the forefront. Call the Coroner Blues distils that evolution into one of his most transportive releases to date, proof that his catalogue and hunger for connection have pushed him to the brink of the wider recognition his music quietly demands.

Call the Coroner Blues is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast