THE CRITICS RAVE!
“Pretend It's Okay” lifts Southern California's Buddy Blue to a new level of musicianship. Achieving a perfect blend of blues and rockabilly perhaps best dubbed “bluesabilly,” Buddy Blue takes his listeners through a range of tempos, from raucous guitar riffs to smooth, soulful jazz licks.....”Pretend It's Okay” deftly captures Buddy Blue's sense of humor and boasts strong vocals, great musicianship and powerful arrangements. If you pick up this CD -- which I highly recommend -- listen for the hidden Popeye track.--Smilin’ Buddah Joe, ATOMIC magazine
A San Diego music institution, Blue is a potent singer, guitarist and songwriter, and his fifth solo album is his most confident and varied to date. He performs any and every roots-music style with enough grit and skill to make you ponder why he' s not famous.
--George Varga, San Diego Union Tribune
Buddy Blue ain’t drawing the swing card anymore but went back to the territory he feels most at home with: that rowdy piece of land called “roots.” Fat and juicy.... fantastic and filthy-sounding....a frantic rocker coming out of his toes, an uncontrolled shot of adrenaline going completely out of hand. I don’t have to pretend, this is the is the real Blue: red hot!
--Marc Nolis, Rootstown Music
Blue has re-invented himself -- again. He’s at the top of his game and his new CD, “Pretend It’s Okay,” proves it -- a rock ‘n’ roll piano-based summation of everything he’s done musically up to now....Blue re-envisions rock ‘n’ roll as one giant backyard barbecue, complete with hot rods, greasy meat, cheap weed and old whiskey....Blue’s guitar mastery has been the stuff of legend since the ‘80s. He can invoke drunken, stumbling nightmares or glass-cutting lust with his solos.....his bands have revived a lost art.
-- Dave Good, SLAMM
Blue’s best album to date.... “Pretend It's Okay,” has the fullest, most complete sound of any recording he's made....more than on any previous album, Blue's playing and songwriting combine all his many influences - jazz, blues and - yes, once again - country....his guitar playing continues to gain intrigue and crispness, his singing is incomparably soulful, and he's written another batch of songs just as impossible to categorize as they are to get out of your head....his use of horns for punctuation and texture is masterful, his ability to set a different mood for each song remarkable.
-- Jim Trageser, American Reporter
Blue has absorbed 100 years of American music and packed them into every note, lick and verse of “Pretend It’s Okay.” From the honky-tonk romp “When Merrill Pitched a Boogie” to the hard-driving “My Sunday Feeling,” Blue and company prove they're still smokin.’ Relatively new sideman Bruce Gilbert’s key pounding is eerily possessed by the same demons inhabiting Jerry Lee Lewis and Pete Jolly. Longtime Blue bandos Jerry Rig and Petey Bogle provide steady thumpa-thumpa bass plucking and a muscular backbeat on the drums, respectively.....Blue is singing more confidently than ever, adding his twisted humor (both musically and lyrically) to many cuts, and honoring us with guitar runs that sound as if they've come from a forgotten master.
-- Matt Coker, OC Weekly
As good as Buddy Blue was with the Beat Farmers, he's a better guitarist, singer and, most importantly, a better songwriter today....In a world of plastic pop, Blue is one of a small cadre of Southern California musicians -- such as Dave Alvin, Big Sandy and Deke Dickerson -- who are producing honest music for honest people....“Pretend It's Okay” is Blue's most varied and ambitious project....Maybe, someday, Blue will escape his Beat Farmers legacy. If he does, it will primarily be the result of consistently putting out music that is much better than just about anything else on the market. “Pretend It's Okay” continues that tradition.
--Howard Owens, Ventura Country Star
Buddy Blue, for many, is the yardstick by which San Diego music is judged. His music is a conglomerate of American styles: blues, jump, swing, rock, gut-bucket country and post-bop jazz. The guy has never been one to pull punches or disappoint anyone out to see a diverse, entertaining set.
--Barry Benintende, The La Jolla Light