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"Blues Cauldron" Strange Brew Riff Records Recommended if you like: A brew of blues and country mixed in with a little gospel

After a first listen to Strange Brew's Blues Cauldron, you may think LeAnn Rimes teamed up with the blues. However, as you continue to listen to the album, your thoughts will change.

Strange Brew's latest album cover doesn't do the band justice. They have fashion sense whatsoever, and their sound is something not fit for Pittsburgh. They're going places. Mix country with blues in a cauldron, and you've got something of a strange brew.

If you're not a fan of either music genre, branch out a little and widen your musical tastes. At the very least, support a Pittsburgh-based band that has received some recognition for their last album.

Readers of In Pittsburgh Magazine voted Strange Brew the Best New Band award. And Dan Aykroyd -- on his radio show "The House of Blues Radio Hour" -- chose Strange Brew as "Pick of the Week."

Strange Brew's eight-song album ranges from country to blues to ... punk? Yes, even punk rock gets mixed into this cauldron.

However, while the band's range of musical style is rather vast, the members' vocabulary within each song doesn't travel that far. The lyrics aren't that deep, but contain some verses that we can all relate to.

For instance, does the song title "Better Stop Drinking" sound familiar to anyone? "I know I better stop drinking/I better stop right now/I know I better stop drinking, for my head gonna hit the ground/I better stop drinking/I've been drinking for too long."

While deeply country- and blues-sounding, the fourth track on the album puts a little bit of a kick into the cauldron. "Stuck in the Middle" is strangely punk, perhaps to the liking of guitarist Fran Rifugiato, who came out of the early New York punk scene from the groups Fingers and the Features.

Track five, though, goes back to the soul of the band. "I'm a Fool" features singer Marcy Eustice putting all of her heart into her singing. Her background was in country, gospel and bluegrass music, and she puts it all out there on this track. Eustice sings, "I'm a fool to fall in love with you/I'm a fool to fall in love with you/You stole my heart, took my money/But I just can't get away from you."

Drummer Pete Foy brings the bubbling cauldron together by mixing blues with the final R&B and garage band elements.

A unique mixture gives you this rather strange brew.

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