June 2001

Iceman Robinsion
I've Never Been Loved
Fedora

By Bill Milkowski

Talk about raw, check out Chicago's Iceman Robinson's I've Never Been Loved. With a healthy dose of distortion on his guitar, this cat takes the rough-hewn Elmore James/Hound Dog Taylor/Lil' Ed Williams style to a new level of raucous on jumped boogies like "My Baby's Comin' Home," "Sadie" and the instrumental "Iceman's Boogie." His "Too Old a Cat (To Be Fooled by a Kitten)" is a hilarious autobiographical anecdote while his infectious "Chicago Lakefront" could be a new anthem for the Windy City. And his sick slide playing on "Workin' Man" is closer in spirit to Sonny Sharrock than Sonny Rhodes. Drummer Chris Millar nails this one down with crisp snare crackle and heavy-footed bass drum accents that barely mask the relentless guitar amp buzz. Slick it ain't-and that's a good thing.