| Blues-Rock |
Justin Saladino Band – Steal My Soul: Slide Guitar, Soul and Raw Blues-Rock Straight From Montreal
Turn up the volume, because this one is made for warm amplifiers. Steal My Soul, the new album by Montreal’s Justin Saladino Band, is a hot-blooded, generous and wonderfully alive record of blues-rock, in which a slide guitar growls, an organ glows, and a rhythm section plays as if it were on stage. Nine songs, no filler, no polish for polish’s sake, and a real love of the blues in every bar. We enjoyed it very much.
The Justin Saladino Band is one of the best-known blues-rock names in Canada. Led by guitarist, singer and songwriter Justin Saladino, it has built a solid reputation with its albums No Worries, A Fool’s Heart, JSB Live and Honest Lies, and with its appearances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Tremblant International Blues Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest and the Festival d’été de Québec, and on the Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruise, where it shared a bill with Joe Bonamassa. The group was nominated as New Artist of the Year at the 2018 Maple Blues Awards and represented Quebec at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2019.
Coming nearly four years after Honest Lies, Steal My Soul is the band’s third studio album, and Saladino produced it himself and released it independently. He had one clear aim: to honour his blues roots while capturing the live energy of his group. It shows from the first notes. The record has the immediacy of a band playing together in a room, and that sense of closeness gives it a warmth you cannot fake.
The album does not stay in one place. It moves between a slow-burning ballad, R&B grooves, hard-hitting blues-rock, a touch of Texas shuffle, a funk-jam and even a cinematic, Western-flavoured blues-rock piece, with a taste of country and southern rock along the way. Yet everything holds together, thanks to the strong personality of its leader. You may catch echoes of Gary Clark Jr., Colin James, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton or John Mayer, and even a distant glimpse of Led Zeppelin, but Saladino never tries to be a copy of anyone.
The thread running through the whole record is his slide guitar. It is everywhere without ever being overbearing: expressive, singing, sometimes biting, sometimes sultry, and always at the service of the song. His voice, slightly veiled, warm and lived-in, is the perfect match. And the lyrics, written with his co-writers Dan Bano and Brittany Kennell, do not pretend to reinvent the world. They tell of love gone wrong, of dark times when life sends you into the trenches, of the melancholy of goodbyes, and of the lessons we eventually learn. Music that clings to you like an old leather jacket.
Behind the leader, the band is superb. Vithou Thurber-Promtep’s B3 organ and keyboards give the arrangements depth and relief, Mario Telaro’s drums hit with a blues-rock attitude that asks for no permission, and Étienne Beausoleil’s bass lines bring a lovely colour that sits between blues, soul and R&B. Domenico Carbone adds vocals on several songs (and plays on the sessions as an engineer and mixer), and layers of acoustic guitar and mandolin add the finishing touches. Steve Marriner guests on harmonica on “Mud”, adding yet more flavour.
What strikes you most is how organic it all is. Nothing seems over-calculated: it plays, it breathes, it sweats. The rhythm section is supple enough to support the most delicate moments and the most explosive climbs, and the instruments are never used as decoration but as part of a personal and traditional world.
The album also contains one cover: “Grinnin’ In Your Face”, written by Eddie “Son” House Jr., the Delta blues legend, who recorded it with nothing but his voice and his hands. Saladino had been singing it at soundchecks for years, ever since he discovered it in a memorable scene with Jack White in the film It Might Get Loud, so covering it felt natural. In the band’s hands, the old a cappella song becomes a dark, brooding and intense blues-rock number, driven by electric slide and a raw four-piece band, with the weight and urgency of early-seventies blues. The song is about refusing to be bent by other people’s judgement, and the band takes up that defiance with relish. As Saladino says, Son House’s version still hits harder than some full bands, and they wanted to do it justice. They do.
Steal My Soul does not pretend to revolutionise the blues, and it does not need to. It celebrates its richness and variety with great talent, with respect for tradition and a contemporary outlook, and above all with sincerity. The songs are well written, the playing is first class, the sound is warm and natural (mixed by Domenico Carbone, mastered by Jonathan Kaspy), and the whole thing runs a compact thirty-seven minutes, so you want to start again as soon as it ends. Purists and fans of modern, open-minded blues alike should find much to enjoy. It is generous, a little rough around the edges in the best sense, and above all very much alive.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, October 30th, 2026
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Tracklisting:
- Steal My Soul (4:16)
- Money Talks (3:34)
- Leave Me Blue (4:06)
- Mud (3:58)
- Just Another Lesson Learned (4:48)
- Don’t Know What You Got (4:58)
- Hoping to Arrive (2:54)
- Grinnin’ In Your Face (3:59) – written by Eddie “Son” House Jr.
- Whispers Of Freedom (4:10)
All tracks written by Justin Saladino with co-writers Dan Bano – Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 & 9, Brittany Kennell – Track 9.
Except Track 8 – written by Eddie “Son” House Jr
Musicians:
Justin Saladino – Vocals, Guitars, Mandolin
Mario Telaro – Drums, Percussion
Etienne Beausoleil – Bass
Vithou Thurber-Promtep – Keys (all tracks except 4)
Domenico Carbone – Vocals (1, 5, 6, 7, 9)
Steve Marriner – Harmonica (4)
Credits:
Produced by Justin Saladino
Engineered by Domenico Carbone (vocals and guitars) and Mario Telaro (drums and bass)
Mixed by Domenico Carbone
Mastered by Jonathan Kaspy
Photography by Zachary Saladino (ZS M3dia Productions)
Cover art by Indy Blinn (Blinn Studio)