"Gypsy Blood' irrefutableis proof that Mason Ruffner a is guitar star waiting happen.to Meet the new sultan sting."of —David Facke/Roffing Stone

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SIAYINC. IN THE TRADITION AN !) STAY— ing true to tradition are not always the same thing. The snap, crackle and stomp of vintage Dixie rhythm & blues courses vigorously through the veins of Gypsy Blood, the second album by this chart-bound Lone Star guitar slinger. You can hear in the roadhouse locomo- tion of "Red Hot Lover" and the bayou barroom swing of "Baby, Don'tI Care No More" ample evidence of Ruffner's long tenure in Bourbon Street gin joints, where he played the best of Earl King, Nowlin' Wolf and Guitar Slim. But Gypsy Blood is alive with ambi- tion. As singer,a songwriter and guit;r- ist, Ruffner - much like Robert Cray, the current retro-groove champ aims- well beyond the holy parameters of the classic three-chord Mississippi moan without sacrificing the immediacy and poignance of the music's earthy simplic- ity. "Runnin' is" a steaming pot of thump-'n'-funk gumbo fired up by a percolating sex beat reminiscent of Ste- vie Wonder's "Superstition." A full bat- talion of strings swoops over the metal- lic howl of Ruffner's lead guitar in "Dancin' on Top of the World." And the Molotov-codctail mix of switchblade rifting, spaghetti-western twang and staccato Stratocaster shriek in the breakneck instrumental "Courage" sounds like Mark Knopfler and Jimi Hendrix duking outit in "Third Stone from the Sun." Ruffner's producer on the album, Welsh rock-mots expert Dave Edmunds, gives the guitarist plenty of elbow room for his oudaw-blues tangents, heightening the singing and soloing with Mark Ay- sec's discreet keyboards and with crisp,a airy studio resonance that's in contrast with the fortified thunder down below of Edmunds's rhytfun regulars, John David and Dave Charles. But Ruffner leaves no doubt here that he is truly his own man. Many of the songs on Gypsy Blood are declarations of independence - "Fightin' Back," "Dancin' on Top of the World; die vengeful "Ain't Gonna Get It" driv-- en by his hairpin lead breaks and gun- your-engine chord grind Ruffner's gruff vocal style and articu- late fretwork on his critically acclaimed and criminally underprornoted 1985 de- Exit, Mason Ruffiser, inspired comparisons, usually favorable, to Mark Knopfler. In- deed, there was familiara "Sultans of Swing" ring to Ruffner's "Down to New Orleans" on that album. Gypsy Blood, however, with its striking combination of the soaring (the ballad "Distant Thun- der") and the sizzling (the pedal-to-the- metal tide track), irrefutableis proof that Mason Ruffner a is guitar star waiting to happen. Meet the new sultan of sting. — David) Fricke

MASON RUFFNER. "Dancin' On Top Of The World." The New Single And Video. rrom Tlrm- Top-10 LF, "Gyps, ood."B Produced By Dave Edmunds. On CBS Associatd Reords. Cassettes and Compact Discs.

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