English singer-songwriter Blake picked two familiar songs and a deep cut for his Status Quo covers EP Ready, Steady, Quo!, the band that evolved from a psychedelic folkies act into a 12-bar boogie powerhouse. Most people will be familiar with Pictures of Matchstick Men, which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and the only song to get some traction in the early days of the Quo. Blake sticks close to the original version (same goes for the included live take).
Things get interesting with his choice for Gerdundula, a track from Dog of Two Head, the first album recorded by what would later be called the Frantic Four - the classic Rossi-Parfitt-Lancaster-Coghlan line-up. Blake obviously loves this song - he loves the whole album in fact - a transitional one that fell through the cracks, but it is a real gem in the band's discography. Finally he tries his hand at the live favourite In My Chair. Trying to play this in the same tempo as the original eluded him, so he chose wisely and went for a slighly slower one that works quite well.
