by Scott Yanow
Sugar Blue is a powerful and fluent harmonica player who is also an effective and heartfelt singer in addition to being a superior writer of blues-oriented songs. On Code Blue he not only sings about love won, lost and misunderstood but warns against cocaine, discusses the blues life, talks about the frustrations of the world (&I Don't Know Why&) and pays tribute to the destroyed New Orleans. His backup band is excellent with some heated guitar solos heard along the way, but Sugar Blue is the main star, having composed or co-written all 11 songs. His words are often insightful and contain some surprises, making this bluish set quite fresh and important.