songbird
Michelle Lewis already recorded the first of her two albums and two EPs in 2004, but she is still unknown, alhough the American singer-songwriter also performed in Europe.
That is surprising for anyone who listens to the ten carefully arranged songs on her third album, because she mixes Continue reading
Black Hen BHCD0087
living blues.
Canadian singer-guitar player Kat Danser planted her feet even firmer in the blues than on predecessor ‘Baptized by the mud’, a title which is exemplary for her rootsy approach.
On that album from 2013 Danser already worked together with master guitarist/producer Steve Dawson and they continue that co-operation in the eight songs she wrote and two covers by Sam McGee and Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Dawson did not only produce the album, he also played the guitar, something he did on her previous one too. He also brought along drummer Gary Craig, bass and mandoline player Jeremy Holmes, fiddler and mandoline player Matt Combs and saxophone and harmonica player Jim Hoke. They accompany Danser’s Continue reading
Stagger Lee/Royal Family Records RFRCD-29083
Malford Milligan’s masterpiece.
The Afro-American Texan singer Malford Milligan and guitarist-singer Jack Hustinx have known each other for more than twenty years.
Milligan’s solo album Sweet cherry soul from 2002, produced by Hustinx, sealed their friendship and was the start of leading Dutch roots band the Shiner Twins, founded by Hustinx.
Hustinx also produced Milligan’s thirteen new songs and played both the acoustic guitar and rhythm guitar again. They also wrote five new songs for it.
They completed the rootsy collection of (country) soul songs with two songs from Hustinx’ own album Over yonder and six ballads from their friend Stephen Bruton and Charlie Rich, amongst others.
At Milligan’s request, Hustinx brought Over yonder’s Southern Aces back together again.
Drummer Nicky Hustinx, bassist Roelof Klijn, keyboardist Roel Spanjers and guitar players Hustinx and Eric van Dijsseldonk leave each other room, but their singer too, with Continue reading
Station House Records SHR 0101
overpowering.
For her fourth album singer-guitar player Kara Grainger recorded twelve songs with New Orleanian Anders Osborne as her guitarist, plus a grooving rhythm section consisting of drummer J.J. Johnson, bass player David Monsey and keyboardist Ivan Neville, while hornsmen play in two songs.
Grainger wrote six of the songs alone and five with others, four of which with Osborne. Together they produced the album, deliberately choosing a direct sound.
Her sensual, lazy vocals are at the centre of it, accompanied by Nevilles hovering and wailing organ, but most of all by her guitar and Osborne’s, because both of them play electric and slide solos.
The two of them shaped the album like a gig: Continue reading
Ambit Acoustic Records 974005
www.johnlestermusic.com
Layered diary.
Singer and bass player John Lester’s fourth solo album is an alternative family tree: the ten songs deal with his relationship with his two sons, his wife, his father, his mother and his grandfather.
Lester recorded the songs with drummers Tim Bulkley of Michael Orbano, guitarist Paul Tiernan and occasional keyboard players. He played various basses and acoustic guitars and ukulele for the first time.
The latter instrument led to a fictitious conversation between the grandfather Lester did not know and his mother. In Through your eyes Lester wants to see the world like one of his sons, who has a serious eye malfaction, and in The beautiful princess of never come true he wonders why expectations about boys and girls are so deeply embedded.
The text got shape after a performance by his other son in a dress at a school party. That Gretchen Peters sings along and her husband Barry Walsh plays the piano, is logical: Peters’ son was born a girl, but changed sexes in the end.
Just because of his family Lester lashes out hard in a supple way to president Trump in Train song (Don’t let freedom fade away): Everything we are tomorrow/comes from the stance we take today.
Once again, he shows his talent for beautiful and equally catchy melodies, in which virtuosity is secondary to ambiance. His singing is just as swinging as it is enjoyably hoarse in lyrics about themes that are autobiographical and universal at the same time.
That way Lester makes supple, layered songs for grown-ups with influences from jazz and singer-songwriter
****
Troubadour.
Paul Batto is a songwriter who says to be influenced by John Lee Hooker, Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra. That already is an unlikely combination for someone who interprets country blues in a personal way, but this entirely American sounding singer-songwriter was born in Ljubjana, Slovenia too.
That he turned into to a travelling blues musician, was no so logical: the guitar that he got when he was five years old, stood untouched in a corner for seven years.
Meanwhile he has already travelled Europe for twenty years and he plays wherever he can. His gigs must be impressive, because his playing and singing sound just as sparse as committed in the eleven songs on his new album. For conjuring up a lot of ambiance Batto needs no more than a good melody, an acoustic guitar and his voice.
His melodies stick in your memory without exception and his guitar playing is diverse in style. Batto especially feels at home in the South of the US, but also absorbs influences from Spain and India. His acoustic and slide guitar sound emotional continuously in the first place, while his vocal does not only add a melody to his playing, but also a lot of intensity.
Batto proves that he can reach maximum results with minimal means, because not only does every song form a logical whole, his inspiration is also clear every time. That way he convincingly evokes a world of endless roads, which indeed are lonely sometimes, but maybe yield many beautiful songs just because of that.
****
Small master.
On his fourth CD American Ernest Troost once again proves thirteen times exactly where he stands: on the crossroads of blues, folk, county and singer-songwriter.
The composer of music for movies and tv series exchanged that trade after some 35 years for writing and playing his own songs and clearly is still very fond of his first love.
Troost starts off just as restlessly as convincingly in the threatening Old screen door, a song full of revenge with a fatal outcome. His bass and electric guitar stress the atmosphere, but it is often just as effective in the semi-acoustic songs. Then Troost plays acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, harmonica, pump organ and sometimes bass, although friends like bassist Mark Goldberg and percussionist Debra Dobkin assist him.
In seemingly autobiographical songs he sings with lots of empathy about failed relationships, although he still believes in love in Close, which sounds just as beautiful as melancholic.
That his songs convince immediately is also because of his vocals, which are flawless, natural and emotional at the same time. He makes regret and longing audible without having to use those words.
Troost’s inspired craft proves itself all the time in his carefully constructed songs, his consciously chosen instrumentations and his lyrics, which are written from original angles, be it in one of two up tempo songs or superior ballads like Storm comin’ or When it’s gone.
After his All the boats are gonna rise (2004), Resurrection Blues (2009) and Live at McCabe’s (2012) Troost once again proves that he rightly chose his own voice.
***1/2 Continue reading
Masterpiece.
Guitar player /singer Findlay called this third CD his debut, because he mixes his jazz with more rhythm ’n’ blues and funk than on Fraser’s Dream and Manna.
His thoughtful melodies are full of unexpected tempo changes, measured funking rhythms and fiery guitars. Sometimes these genres blend, sometimes they grind profoundly against each other.
He sings emotionally on top of grooving blues riffs and quirky southern rock, adding equal parts of Continue reading
Superb folk-blues.
Singer-songwriter Louise Taylor’s sixth record is released after a long pause, because her first five CDs were released between 1992 and 2003.
Whether the crisis in the record industry caused this, is unclear. It can hardly have been an artistic crisis though, because Taylor plays eleven songs in which she Continue reading
All the boats are gonna rise – Ernest Troost ***1/2
Resurrection blues – Ernest Troost ****
Real music.
Live at McCabe’s was a first introduction to a man with a calling. That CD proved to be Ernest Troost’s third, because the composer of film music already debuted as a bluesy folkie in 2004.
Troost plays and sings his thirteen songs solo on All boats are gonna rise, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and sometimes on harmonica too.
That way it attracts all the more attention how Continue reading
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