Blackwater Surprise Offers Crowd-Pleasing R

The origin of Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise is the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend: Blind soul singer spends 15 years busking on Detroit street corners until one day an enterprising roots-rock quartet hears his songs and persuades him to join the group. Soon enough, they’ve got a self-titled major-label debut album that neatly blends Bradley’s compelling voice and mature songwriting with the band’s youthful energy.

Cooking up a vintage R&B; groove at the Troubadour on Thursday, the band proved that a piquant blend of rock and soul is still a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Ranging from Led Zeppelin-like blues-rock to Van Morrison-style balladry, the songs reflected Bradley’s affinity for singers such as Otis Redding and Elvis Presley, as well as the players’ obsessions with British blues and the Motown/Stax sound.

But Bradley was clearly the hourlong set’s focal point. Clad in a double-breasted suit, the 47-year-old singer had palpable stage presence and charisma. His expressive, gravelly voice tended to stay in the lower register, but it didn’t fail when he sang falsetto. And the guileless emotion in his voice made for plenty of affecting moments, from the sad, sweet nostalgia of “Once Upon a Time” to the searing seduction of “For the Night.”

Oddly, while the songs were varied, the music wasn’t as distinctive as it might have been, probably because the rhythm section tended to drive the tunes. While Andrew Nehra’s nimble, powerhouse bass lines and keyboardist Tim Diaz’s psychedelic riffs packed a punch, Michael Nehra’s wah-wah-laced guitar licks often provided only swatches of background color.