It's come to this

Steve Albers was a founding member and the original guitarist of  local legends The Soulard Blues Band, the driving force behind the  resurgence of blues in St. Louis which took place in the ‘80s. He then  left for New York City and formed his own blues band, BlueStreak.  After  several attempts to find the right front man for his band, Steve  realized that he was destined to be the lead vocalist.  Five years later  he returned to the heartland and the place that knows the blues the  best, St. Louis.  He decided it was time to fully develop as a lead  singer and writer.  
This is Steve’s debut solo album of all  original tunes entitled “It’s Come To This”, subtitled Original Blues  and Other Assorted Colors.    Here he has gathered some of the finest  musicians in his hometown of St. Louis.  The first half of this album,  Original Blues, consists of four electric blues and two acoustic blues.   The second half features alt-country, instrumental and  ambient/psychedelic songs, Other Assorted Colors.  
Different  genres does not mean disjointment.  There is a flow to this album.   Starting with “Bail Me Out”, a response to the mortgage and financial  crisis of 2008, to the sense of isolation caused by transiency in  “People Come and Go”.  One listen to “Price Jump” reveals the ongoing  angst over making a dollar last.  “I Do, I Won’t I Will” is unrequited  love, while “Scruffy South St. Louis Backyard Blues” is just that,  sitting in a south city backyard recording into a tiny condenser-mike  recorder while contemplating what it’s come to in that moment.  
No  one goes through a cycle or two without scraping bottom.  It cannot be  denied and blues is not afraid to go there and stare it in the face.   “My Soul Blues” is just that.  More scruff, nothing fancy, just real.   From that place of “down in the gutter, but free” comes the potential of  revelation and redemption.  That is the instrumental “Manifest”,  flowing easily from the blues.  Love is part of the path, as confusing  as love can be, with “Cosmic Girl” appearing when you least expect her.   There is serene mystery and beauty in this world as “Winter Solstice”  is celebrated.  
What  a long, strange trip.  “It’s Come To This”.  From there the conscious  mind drifts away and the sublime sets in.  Here we see the person  sitting in the meadow on the cover of this album.  She/he has reached a  new level of awareness.  Lost in time somewhere in the space of a long,  hot summer, it’s a “Timeless Infibulum”.  It begs for a mystical “raise  your head to the sky” return to the Blues.  
  It’s come to this.