Steve Strongman’s last three albums were all nominated for the Blues JUNO and A Natural Fact won it. At the International Blues Challenge this past January, Steve placed first in the Solo/Duo category. Tired of Talkin’ will most certainly keep this trend going. Half the album keeps the team from previous ones and the other half is from a trip to Nashville with session musicians there. What stays constant is Strongman’s abilities as singer, songwriter and guitarist. He adds harmonica too. The rocking title songs starts things off in fine form, with Hamilton piano ace Jesse O’Brien tickling the ivories as a little extra bonus with the Nashville crew. He follows that up with a very good blues that features his harp, “Paid My Dues”. More harmonica highlights a blues rocker, “(If I) Can’t Have It All (I’ll Take Just a Little Bit)”. O’Brien returns to help out on the slow blues “Tell Me Like It Is”, a plea to open up about problems. “Livin’ The Dream” is a road song with a difference: Strongman sings most persuasively about loving his career as a travelling musician. He plays slide over the hard rocking Hamilton band. He then gives the band some time off as he plays a solo original on his dobro. “Highway Man” is an impassioned plea to stop the bloodshed on the streets and on his street in particular. He closes with a couple of lovely soul blues songs, his own “Bring You Down” and the one non-original, Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”. An attractive ending for a fine album. Dave King has been with Steve since the beginning and he helped write all the songs here and played drums on the Hamilton sessions as usual. He helped engineer the sessions as well. Colin Lapsley played bass. Steve Strongman has a CD Release party in Hamilton as you read this but not one here yet. He plays Mont Tremblant and other festivals before heading to the Las Vegas Blues Bender. Go to www.stevestrongman.com for more info.