Boy, was I in for a nice surprise.

The band's stationary describes them as "Elco Jones B&B Blues Band" and their website as "Funkin good soul" - so a mix of blues and soul, then, perhaps?

This is a seriously good band, and with "Keeping up with the Jones's" they seem to have done the sensible thing and pick a whole bunch of top of the range covers that everyone will relate to. By doing this, of course, they also run the risk of offending all the purists out there who consider this material sacrosanct, but then these are usually the people who don't even listen to covers bands anyway!

Included on this latest album are such tracks as Car Wash, Play that Funky Music, Son of a Preacher Man and Daydream Believer - and for any of you who are not old enough to have even heard of this stuff, well, you probably shouldn't be up this late!

Also included is the timeless "Lady Marmalade" - and for those of you (I suspect many) scratching their heads at the title I should probably quote the most famous line from the song: "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"

For those of you interested in details, Elco Jones consists of John Flemming, Jane Hare and Mandy Gooden on vocals; Warren Byatt on bass; John Harrington on guitar; Alan Gooden on drums and Matt Dixon on keyboards. The brass section is made up of Craig Smith and Kerry Bennion on trumpet; Pete Harley on sax and Paul Rawlins on trombone.

This is material that just has to be given the respect it deserves, and Elco Jones manage to pull it off admirably. Each track is just different enough from the original to give the band their own unique style, while not alienating the classics purists. The first track I listened to was Daydream Believer as this is one of my favourite tunes, and from that moment on I was sold. If more bands picked their material this well and pulled it off to this standard, there would be a lot less people complaining about the endless covers bands out there. Respect is due, as Ali G would probably say.

I must go now - Daydream Believer has just come on again and I have to go chill! And despite several trips to America in the past, I still haven't ever found out exactly what a homecoming queen is...

http://www.elcojones.co.uk