Album Review of
Thunder 'n' Lightning

Written by Robert Silverstein
April 18, 2019 - 12:00am EDT
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Fans of 21st century blues-rock sounds must check out the albums of the well-regarded Upstate New York based guitarist Mark Cloutier. Back in 2011, Mark released Wings Of Fire, which was a CD compilation of assorted instrumental blues and rock tracks first brought to light on Mark’s various self-produced album releases. Time flies as they say and now in 2018 Mark returns to the music world with Thunder ‘N’ Lighting, an album of all new material written and recorded with Mark his brother, singer and lyricist Myke Cloutier. The resulting ten track album by their band Cloutier, the ten track Thunder 'N' Lightning rocks up quite a storm and will quickly find a home among fans of finest rockin' blues being recorded today. Commenting on this first ever album release from Cloutier, Mark explains, “This is our first release together and I owe it to brother Myke for instigating this project by simply saying let’s do some jamming and see what happens. I’m very proud of this album.” Mark Cloutier’s previous albums, including Deep Down Blues and Attitude With Gratitude, were clearly inspired by the rock, blues and instrumental guitar music of guitar giants like Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Freddy King and Jimi Hendrix and after a few spins it’s quite clear that Thunder ‘N’ Lighting keeps the timeless blues-rock genre going strong. As Mark notes in recent interviews, in addition to his new album with brother Myke in Cloutier, he’s also still quite busy with his Syracuse, N.Y. based band, The Double Barrel Blues Band, and fans of his work with DBBB will equally enjoy this first Cloutier album. And, considering the sonic diversity that Mark brings to the blues and rock guitar world, there’s always the chance in the future for a follow-up album to his groundbreaking instrumental guitar album Wings Of Fire. There's plenty of trailblazing, rockin’ big-beat electric guitar sounds on this first Cloutier album, and with one killer track after the next, Thunder ‘N’ Lighting is a stunning mix of solid blues-rock at its finest.