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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
When the 2014 Too Many Roads album came out, half of the music press worldwide finally tributed Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado, desevedly so, as one of the hottest blues/rock bands around. It was a breakthrough record that brought Risager and the band to the attention of a more international audience, thanks to an irresistible combination of great songs, Risager's formidable talent as a singer-songwriter and performer and The Black Tornado's huge musical craftmanship.
For those who followed the Danish artist's career since the beginning, they know very well that there are a lot more layers of sounds and musical influences in Risager's background, beside the blues and rock genres that brought him and The Black Tornado to global popularity.
Their brand new album, Change My Game, would lead, through its title, to believe to a new change of artistic direction for Risager & Co. Instead, the Danish singer/songwriter & The Black Tornado deliver a record that incorporates the collective's love and devotion for music in its globality, through eleven of the best songs that Thorbjorn Risager has ever written in his glorious career.
Change My Game is a fascinating, sophisticated and compelling record that carries many strengths within, like strong melodies, energy and, occasionally, a little darkness too.
The opening track, I Used To Love You, has got that very same "noir" feeling that the album cover has. Risager's fabulous vocals and The Black Tornado's soul-tinged performance on this track match each other in perfect harmony and simmetry.
When the music tempo starts to rise, the listeners are taken into an eclectic and highly entertaining joyride of funk (Dreamland, Change My Game), southern-rock (Hard Time, Maybe It's Alright), blues (Holler 'N' Moan, Train) and rock (Hold My Lover Tight and the closing City Of Love), the whole played, sang and executed by Risager and The Black Tornado at the highest standard imaginable.
The song Lay My Burden Down, among an already impressive album setlist, deserves a separate mention. Risager sings with the class, pathos and finesse of a true Chansonnier on this very evocative tune, with The Black Tornado providing the most perfect soundtrack to, perhaps, some of the darkest and, at the same time, most intense lyrics of the album.
Change My Game is a superbly written, played and produced record. There is not a single note misplaced throughout the whole album. Risager's songwriting is impeccable and his voice has never sounded better than this. The Black Tornado too proved, once again, why they are one of the top five best studio and live bands in the music business.
The year 2017 marks through the release of Change My Game, another defining moment in the career of the Danish artist and his collective in what it is, undoubtedly, their best ever album to date.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Change My Game is out now and it is available via Ruf Records
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Ben Granfelt is certainly one of the most hard working rock musicians around. In a career span that has seen him playing with some true iconic bands like Wishbone Ash and Leningrad Cowboys amongst others, the Finnish guitarist has then embarked a successful solo career since 1993, becoming one of the most acclaimed live rock acts in many parts of the world.
His brand new album, Another Day, sees him joining forces again with his old fellow friend and prodigy drummer Miri Miettinen (Laurence Jones, Erja Lyttinen), who worked with Granfelt on his first 10 solo album and his trusted, longstanding bass player John "Groovemaster" Viherva.
Another Day, which has been entirely recorded just in three days, captures perfectly the musical simmetry between Granfelt and his band, showcasing as well some inspired songwriting as an extra added bonus to Granfelt's new album.
One of the most interesting aspects of the record as well, it's Granfelt's transition on his guitar playing style, which seems often to nod towards a more blues/rock type of sound, still maintaining though a steady foot in his rock and roll roots.
There is also a great immediacy about Another Day, which comes by cutting the album entirely live, in its recording process. In view of that, one can easily forgive some minor imperfections, at times, on the record, because they are the obvious results of the live recording, something that help the listeners to appreciate even more the rawness and purity of the power trio sound.
There are some greatly entertaining moments in Another Day. Hangman's Tree and Rocking The Boat are fast and furious numbers, while Open Road, Open Book and Heart On Your Sleeve are clear signs of Granfelt's love and appreciation for blues/rock.
What sums Granfelt's class, as a guitarist, is the beautiful and delicate instrumental Endless. The tune, placed cleverly as centrepiece in the album's setlist, shows clearly why Ben Granfelt is one of the most respected and revered guitarists around of the last three decades of rock and roll.
Another Day marks a welcomed return to form for the Finnish Guitar Maestro, able to display, on this record, more and more layers of his talent both as a musician and as a songwriter. An impressive record and a strong step forward for Granfelt's music career.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Another Day is out now and is available via Bluesland Productions
"Buy a record, support the artists, preserve the future of music"
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It has been a long time coming for fans and critics but the moment has finally arrived and it is right here, right now. Described unanimously by fans and critics as The Next Rockstar In The Making, the 18-years old Oxfordshire-born, blues/rock guitaristAaron Keylock has been waiting for quite some time to unleash his debut album, Cut Against The Grain, just released via Mascot Label Group/Provogue.
Keylock's legendary live performances have been the talk of the town for the last 5-6 years, within the blues/rock circuit in the United Kingdom and there was a lot of interest and curiosity surrounding his debut album.
Cut Against The Grain has been recorded in L.A., with Keylock working hard under the expert supervision of one of the hottest producers and bass players in town, Fabrizio Grossi, better known for his work with music icons like Alice Cooper, Steve Lukather, George Clinton and Ice-T, amongst others and for being part of the all-stars group Supersonic Blues Machine.
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One of the greatest things about Emiliana Torrini is that she has always done what she wanted, in her career, without sticking to a musical path set by record labels or music press expectations.
Throughout the years, Torrini has not just revealed herself as an intelligent songwriter and a very talented singer but also as an acute observer of the worldwide music scene, paying attention especially to alternative ways of expressing such a sublime art form, which is music.
There is no wonder, therefore, that the Icelandic artist, for her new release, has decided to collaborate with the Belgian orchestra The Colorist, a project born in 2013 by a group of skilled musicians, combining classical instruments with self-made one. For someone like Torrini, always searching for innovative grooves and vibes, collaborating with The Colorist was an inevitable path to follow, a true musical marriage made in heaven.
The outcome, a live recorded album simply called The Colorist & Emiliana Torrini, is a fascinating sonic diary of Torrini's songbook, a journey throughout Torrini's career that includes some of the finest songs belonging to her repertoire, plus a brand new tune called When We Dance.
The most fascinating aspect of the album is the way that Torrini and The Colorist have re-dressed the Icelandic singer/songwriter songs, combining elements of new wave, ambient and avant-garde with Torrini's unique voice, a voice that gets better and better as the years go by.
The whole performance recorded is, frankly, worth in its entirety even for someone that has never heard the Icelandic artist's songs before. Her songs dig deep into the human hearts and souls and everyone listening to this album can be easily identify themselves in one of the many states of mind or inner feelings expressed by the creativity of this superb artist.
The Colorist, musically, create the perfect, otherwordly background for such feelings and states of mind, starting from the fascinating, syncopated rhythm they create for Blood Red to the beautiful waltz adaptation made on the song Serenade.
The setlist of the album offers several surprises, from the new song When We Dance, containing also a sweet excerpt coming from a conversation between Torrini and her son ("mummy, when we dance together our minds shine") to a tune called Nightfall, something that Torrini wrote in 2014 with an artist called Kid Koala for the soundtrack of a movie called Men, Women & Children, very rarely performed live.
The Colorist & Emiliana Torrini album is evocative, emotional and the songs included in this remarkable live performance fly in the air with the lightness of a feather. A superb, timeless record.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The Colorist & Emiliana Torrini is out now and it is available via Rough Trade
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A man sitting on a floor playing blues, it cannot be any more simpler than that. After last year's splendid release of his best album to date, Speaking In Shadows, the American guitarist and singer/songwriter Reed Turchi returns to his first love, the blues, through his new, acoustic album called Tallahatchie.
The album is a total stripped-down one and pays tribute to one of the biggest, most inspirational music fonts ever for the American artist and his love, in particular, for the Mississippi HIll Country Blues. Turchi has always been throughout his career and still is, a musician whose genuinity and artistic honesty has never been in discussion and Tallahatchie is no exception. Through this album, whose title is inspired by the name of the river that runs through North Mississippi, Reed Turchi pays a respectful homage to some of the fathers of the genre, like RL Burnside, "Otha" Turner and Mississippi Fred McDowell.
The choice of the songs covered by the delicate, still very intense sound of Turchi's slide guitar is well balanced. His vocals throughout the album are mostly whispered, like someone that wants to accentuate more the devotion and the significance of those songs for the artist himself, rather than trying to make his own stamp on them.
Turchi underlines beautifully, through the songs covered on Tallahatchie, the different sides of the artists he has decided to cover on this record. as, for example, RL Burnside's more funny side on the track Skinny Woman (...I don't want a skinny woman, her meat don't shake...All she ever do is to walk up and down) and the slightly darker one, as in the Turchi's beautiful rendition of Like A Bird Without A Feather (....Well, you know, sure as I shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong...).
There are many more and equally intense performances in Turchi's new album. It's definitely worth to mention two of Mississippi Fred McDowell's classics, You Got To Move and John Henry, both delivered by Turchi's voice and his slide guitar with the class and the charisma of a perfect Blues Troubadour.
Tallahatchie is an album that goes beyond the pure and simple love for the traditions of the Hill Country Blues. It's the most sincere labour of love possible of a musician that has never forgotten where his musical heart belongs to and always will.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Tallahatchie is out now and can be purchased via Reed Turchi's Bandcamp Page
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Records should be made and released just when it feels right for artists, not because they "need" to be done for contractual purposes. That is exactly the attitude and the philosophy of Chicago-born Guitar Master Ronnie Baker Brooks, who did not release a new record for almost a decade, since his 2006 album The Torch.
Throughout the last 10 years, touring and collaborating with fellow music artists and family life have been the main focus for Baker Brooks. Still, this phenomenal guitarist and singer/songwriter had, on the back of his mind, the will to release new material and perhaps, it was just a matter of having the right things happening at the right time.
A new record contract with Mascot/Provogue and working with one of the most talented producers worldwide, Steve Jordan, were exactly what Baker Brooks needed to push himself to get back to the studio and working on a new album.
Recorded in Memphis and Nashville, Times Have Changed, Ronnie Baker Brook's new album, shows an artist in fabulous form, combining original material that he had written through the last ten years with some excellent covers of artists like Joe Tex, Curtis Mayfield, Robert Cray and Alvin Cash, amongst others.
Baker Brooks, for his comeback to the music scene, has certainly taken full advantage of the recording locations by calling some of his closest friends in the music business to help him delivering one of the most compelling albums of his career. The list of artists collaborating with Baker Brooks on this album is as impressive as the quality of his new record: Angie Stone, Steve Cropper, Baker Brook's father Lonnie, Eddie Willis, Todd Mohr, the late great Bobby "Blue" Bland, Felix Cavaliere, rapper Al Kapone and Lee Roy Parnell they all came to add their artistic skills on a very inspired record.
Every song on the album tells a different story with such pathos and intensity and it doesn't matter whether the story has been written by Baker Brooks himself or by other artists. Where the Guitar Maestro does not sing and leaves instead one of his fellow artists to do so, it's his guitar that does the talk on his behalf, exceptionally well.
Times Have Changed is an incredible time capsule. There are the soul vibes of the Stax and Motown period, touches of funk and R&B sounds coming from Paisley Park in Minneapolis, urban hip-hop and fragments of Chicago Blues, all hidden in Baker Brook's contemporary vision of musical globalization.
It's frankly difficult to frame one or two songs out of such a splendid musical kaleidoscope. The album's title-track is one of the best songs Baker Brooks has ever written. His idea of creating a melting pot of hip-hop and blues, something that this artist has already successfully achieved on previous records, it reaches another level on this tune, thanks also to a very inspired songwriting.
Robert Cray and Eric Clapon's version of Old Love, performed by Baker Brooks with Bobby "Blue" Bland prior to the music veteran's passing, is an authentic jewel and it's truly emotional to get to hear again Bland's dazzling voice combined with Baker Brook's heart-warming guitar sound.
Perhaps one of the most surprising tunes to be found on Times Have Changed is Joe Tex's cover of Give The Baby Anything The Baby Wants. Enriched by the splendid support given by "Big Head" Todd Mohr on vocals and guitar and the great Eddie "Chank" Willis on guitar, the tune epitomises perfectly what Ronnie Barker Brook's music vision is all about. The work of a very talented music artist expressing a modern sound that embraces blues, soul, R&B of the past and present in a metaphorical sonic bridge.
Times Have Changed is Ronnie Baker Brook's ultimate musical statement on his artistry and his talent, not just as a guitarist but also as a songwriter. It is a record that manages so cleverly to carry the traditions of many different genres and transforming them in an unique, fresh and contemporary combo, still respecting though the genre's roots.
A very warm "Welcome Back" to a sumptuous, forward-thinking artist. Paraphrasing Baker Brook's album title, Times might Have Changed, but his class is still strongly there.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Times Have Changed will be released worldwide on 20th January 2017 and can be ordered via Mascot Label Group/Provogue
"Buy a record, support the artists, preserve the future of music"
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Curious how sometimes, in the music industry, remarkable material comes to the surface just after an artist's passing. Jeff Healey's Heal My Soul had been already one of the biggest and most welcomed surprises of a tumultous year for music like 2016, therefore, the announcement of a further release, Holding On: A Heal My Soul Companion brought an even bigger smile on the faces of not only those that loved Jeff Healey's artistry but to everyone that loves music of the finest quality unconditionally. Because this is indeed a very fine record.
Where Heal My Soul had finally brought to the light of the day some original, undiscovered (until now) gems written and played by the Canadian Guitar Virtuoso, Holding On.. shows instead different sides of Healey's enormous talent, as a songwriter and as a live performer. While the 5 Heal My Soul studio outtakes opening the album are an ulterior statement of Healey's artistry, the live performance recorded in Oslo in 1999 is the undisputed centrepiece of the whole record.
Between the outtakes included in Holding On.. Love Takes Time and Dancing With The Monsters shine in all their beauty and intensity certainly more than the others. Love Takes Time sees Healey pushing heavily on the rock pedal, though still maintaining a great balance between melody, quality of lyrics and the magic of his guitar sound, a sound that is strong and passionate exactly like the Canadian artist's personality. Dancing With The Monsters, although maintaining a solid rock vibe, it's more rootsy and allows Healey not just to display once again his unmistakable class as a guitarist but also his incredible voice, something that, in Yours Truly's opinion, has never been underlined and appreciated enough by the media throughout Healey's career.
Roger Costa, Healey's official archivist, has done once again a stellar job in bringing back to the surface some of the most glorious moments of the Canadian artist's career. The live performance present on Holding On... is a true masterclass in music. Healey does not just sound as powerful and inspired as he has ever been, in this recording, but also very happy, relaxed and amiable as ever.
To be able to select few tracks out of this memorable live performance is a titanic task. Healey always played anything that he wanted in his live concerts and this one is no exception. His cover versions of Robert Johnson's Dust My Broom, The Beatle's Yer Blues or How Blue Can You Get, a song that became one of BB King's signature pieces at his concerts, are truly outstanding. Even when Healey indulges himself by covering Stealers Wheel's classic Stuck In The Middle With You and The Champ's Tequila, he never loses track of his craftmanship and his ability as a guitarist and as a singer.
The temperature of the live performance, though, raises two notches when Healey is playing his own material. The semi-acoustic delivery of Macon Georgia Blue is so superbly crafted that the whole song feels like a blast of fresh air in the hottest night. Undoubtedly, one of the highest moments in Healey's career as a lyricist and as a performer.
The live version of Holding On, at the time of this recording still unreleased, encapsules perfectly the whole essence of Healey's creativity. There is wilderness, style, soul, once again excellent songwriting and bags of talent on guitar. Healey, vocally, has never sounded live on stage any better than this. The closing See The Light, one of Healey's biggest hits in his incredible career, feels a bit like a messianic ritual for all of Healey's fans. The Canadian artist is literally unstoppable. The power of his guitar sound resonates in the Norwegian skies like a rocket flying at the speed of light, the right conclusion to an utterly superb concert.
Holding On: A Heal My Soul Companion is a record that make us all miss even more the class and the talent of a true musical genius like Jeff Healey, taken away from life far too soon. His attitude, his personality, his versatility as an artist still speak to the hearts and souls of thousands of people now as much as when Healey was still with us. Human gifts that even death cannot take away from us all.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Holding On: A Heal My Soul Companion is out now and can be ordered via Mascot Label Group
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