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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The aim of who creates art, any form of art, is to bring to the masses that message of culture that, in an era like this, too often get soffocated or totally nullified by the Internet and the various Social Networks.
Fabrizio Poggi from Italy is an artist that respects such statement right to the bone. His new record, Il Soffio Della Liberta' (The Murmur Of Freedom) is a labour of love, inspired by the blues culture and the values and the richness of history that this genre carries. The album has been inspired by a theatrical music performance of the Italian Bluesman, celebrating a century of blues through the songs and the stories of those human heroes that have brought the Afro-American population from slavery to freedom.
The album features some brilliantly revised classics, such as Seeger's We Shall Overcome or Dylan's I Shall Be Released and some powerful Traditionals of the Blues, like Oh Freedom or I Want Jesus To Walk With Me.
Poggi has, in this record, stellar Special Guests to help him accomplishing this splendid music project, artists of the highest calibre like The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Eric Bibb, Charlie Musselwhite, Garth Hudson and many more. Musically, Poggi challenges himself in performing those classics, by offering an highly palatable ensemble of Blues, Folk and Americana. And where his voice can't reach, then there is his fabulous harmonica and the class of the musicians accompanying Poggi, creating some really special vibes on this musical history ride. To hear the closing track of the album, the evergreen Amazing Grace, just on harmonica and voice, it is really something special and almost goose-pumping.
There are several references, on Il Soffio Della Liberta', to Martin Luther King and his importance on inspiring Poggi to create this concept album. In one of his most famous quotes, King once said "You can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream". That is the way in which the Italian Artist lives and has always lived his life, by breathing, thinking and living the dream of Blues every single day through his enormous talent.
A work of love, honesty and class. Il Soffio Della Liberta' is musical food for soul.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Il Soffio Della Liberta' can be purchased via Amazon Italia.
Fabrizio Poggi will be touring the United States, please see Tour Dates below:
September 27th - Gruene Hall, New Braunfels, TX
October 2nd - Hondo's On Main, Fredericksburgh, TX
October 3rd - Poodie's Party, Spicewood, TX
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
It's quite remarkable that some artists like Joe Louis Walker manage to sustain an incredible quality of sound and energy as the years go by, even after something like 20 plus albums recorded. Everybody Wants A Piece, out on 9th October, is his new, highly entertaining album, that travels across Walker's music influences since he was a teenager.
On his own admission, to record this album was almost a "no brainer" for Walker and his band, an ensemble of highly skilled musicians that fuses perfectly the spirit and the style of this guitarist Virtuoso.
Walker, together with an indisputable ability as a guitarist, has also the gift to be highly versatile as a songwriter too. Black & Blue is almost a R&B ballad, on which JL Walker talks about conflicts of the heart between a couple and is perhaps one of the songs where the whole band has the opportunity to flex their musical muscles splendidly.
Witchcraft has got a very sinuous 70's funky tempo. One Sunny Day carries instead that blues/rock torch so much loved by Walker throughout his career. Gospel Blues is a delicate instrumental blues piece, where the ability and the class of the American Artist in playing guitar, with that nocturnal, almost intimate sound, raises straight to bar 10 in excellence and talent.
Buddy Guy's cover of Man Of Many Words has got that real depth and intensity able to rival even the original, through the powerful voice of Walker, his formidable band and a horn section that gives the feeling of being in the presence of a true R&B orchestra.
A record that oozes authenticity and passion for the blues and all the different musical shades or colors applicable to the genre.
Everybody Wants A Piece offers exactly what the album describes in his title. Eleven songs that each contain a piece of the talent of this gifted musician. A truly beautiful album.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Everybody Wants A Piece can be pre-ordered on Mascot Label Group website or through Amazon
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
It is always very refreshing to see artists that love to progress their musical education. Chantel McGregor is one of the most gifted artists of the Nouvelle Vague of the English Blues/Rock Invasion. Through her new album, Lose Control, she moves into darker territories, whilst maintaining a refreshing sound, suspended half a way between the 90's rock/grungy style and the lyrical approach of a modern troubadour.
Lose Control has been labelled by the Artist Herself as a "Southern Gothic" music style, with McGregor's guitar leading occasionally into heavier sounds, such as the trilogy of songs that open the album (Take The Power, Your Fever, Burn Your Anger) or walking into acoustic escapisms in delicate tracks such as Home, in which McGregor's voice becomes the centrepiece of the song, showcasing her amazing singing style.
There are some sublime surprises in this highly interesting album. Eternal Dream is a true homage to artists like Jeff Buckley, in which the English artist manages to create an ethereal atmosphere, through the sound of her dreamy guitar and the timeless magic that resonates from McGregor's voice.
Killing Time is a rock riff-packed song, with an angry, racous sound that echoes that wonderful pastiche of sound that bands like Smashing Pumpkins loved to create in the 90s, with McGregor's guitar offering, in our view, the best guitar arpeggios of the entire album.
Chantel McGregor didn't yet finish though, to surprise the listeners. The closing track, Walk On Land, is a contemporary take on the Progressive Rock of the 70's, with a powerful, solid, masterly solo from McGregor's guitar that showcases, once again, her incredible ability.
A strong album, both lyrically and sonically and a solid step ahead in McGregor's career. Lose Control is the resounding message of an artist determined to leave her mark in the future of music.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Lose Control will be released in October 2015 and can be purchased on Chantel McGregor Official Website
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- Written by: Lee Hebert
ARMIES: Playing with Friendly Fire
After twenty six years writing funk-rock songs for the seven piece, high energy, Rustic Overtones, Dave Gutter has written what some say may be his best work yet. The twelve songs that make up the ARMIES record are a meld of electro pop with duet style anthems inspired by French Pop of the sixties. When I explain Gutters description to friends, their reply is, “Well, I don’t really know what French Pop of the sixties is like.” My response is “You know, neither do I, but this record is exactly what I would imagine it to sound like”.
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Too Many Roads, the music masterpiece Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado released last year was not just a coincidence. The Danish collective recorded a bunch of excellent albums prior to their 2014 universally acclaimed album but, as often happens in the strange world of the music industry, they got media attention just in their native country.
Last year's album projected Risager and the band so far that their album was recognised as one of the best albums of the year by many Blues magazines and medias in general. Flying high on Too Many Roads' worldwide success, Risager & The Black Tornado decided to record a live album in Germany, one of the countries where some of their largest number of fans are based, through Ruf Records, one of the biggest European Labels and a strong supporter of Risager & The Black Tornado's music style.
The album, released as a CD & DVD, as in the spirit of the Songs From The Road album series, shows in full the immense craftmanship of the whole band. When they hit the stage as a 10-piece mini orchestra, the crowd may just start to wonder how the show is going to unfold and Risager & Co. waste no time.
The attack of If You Wanna Leave is strong, bluesy and ballsy and Risager's voice is one of the deepest, most intriguing voice of the entire music scene. Paradise is sexy in its funky sound, Rock 'n' Roll Ride let the whole band open up their full potential like a music flower, with the the three-piece Horn Section supporting beautifully the strong sonic alchemy coming from Risager & The Black Tornado. Through The Tears is a powerful ballad and one of the most poignant moments of the show, with some excellent killer guitar solos from Peter Skjerning of The Black Tornado, which showcases his brilliancy even further also on the evergreen Let The Good Times Roll, towards the end of the show.
The whole band is an authentic music machine, ready to switch from blues to funk to R&B, incorporating elements of jazz and rock in a formula that, if considered as a winner on a studio recording, on a live show goes few notches further.
Music is a fabulous art and there are very few bands out there, able to sound as good as Thornbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado. A treat for all music lovers.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Songs From The Road can be purchased via Ruf Records or Amazon
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Robert Cray is one of those artists that reminds of opening a fine and expensive bottle of the best Californian wine. The outcome tastes better and better as the years go by, exactly like Cray's music. 4 Nights Of 40 Years Live, his latest release, is a captivating documentary of the career of an exceptional guitarist, a very talented songwriter and a music innovator.
Recorded in four different venues in California, under the impeccable supervision and production of Steve Jordan (also present as additional drummer on some of the live tracks), the 2-CD and DVD Boxset travels around the whole career of the American guitarist, sounding always so fresh and contemporary as those songs were written in present time. The "Strong Persuader" album has a big presence, as expected, with some of the most famous songs from Cray's ample music catalogue. In particular, Smoking Gun, I Guess I Showed Her and Still Around, all present on CD2 and recorded live in 1987 at a TV show in Netherland, bring back memories of that style and class of one of the best albums of that decade, with Cray and the Band in fabulous form.
The Bad Influence song from the 1983 album of the same name and These Things from the Midnight Stroll album are the true masterpieces of this live recording. Cray's solos are so deep, meaningful, exactly as his singing style is. Richard Cousins on bass fuses perfectly his bass lines with the harmonies generated by Cray's guitar, with Les Falconer on drums and Dover Weinberg on keys to complete the fantastic sonic rug of a blues-soul-funk band at the top of their game.
The DVD is a perfect journal of this live set, with tributes to Cray's artistry coming from artists of the calibre of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Vaughan, Buddy Guy and Bonnie Raitt. If there is people out there that has not had the privilege yet to see The Robert Cray Band live, this DVD offers certainly the best possible glimpse of what a live show from this band may sound.
Honest, immediate, intense and powerful, this live recording is the true mirror of Cray's personality and his great artistic dimension. The Robert Cray Band could never sound any better than this.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
4 Nights Of 40 Years can be purchased via Mascot Label Group and Amazon
The Robert Cray Band upcoming Tour Dates
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
In these modern times, talking of bringing an entire Prog-Rock show to the masses, like the one the California-born Prog-Rock Phenomenon Neal Morse did, is somehow an authentic miracle. A miracle made of sheer passion and belief for a genre that has created the platform, back in the 70's, for the whole rock generation of the 80's and 90's. Morsefest! 2014 is not one of those Pomp And Circumstances type of releases but a real musical celebration of the genre of phenomenal quality, through the generous album package of 4 CDs and 2 DVDS.
Neal Morse, through his solo career and previously with bands of the calibre of Transatlantic, Spock's Beard and Flying Colors, has maintained very successfully that music integrity and deep respect towards this music style that made and still make of him one of the most respected musicians not just only within the Progressive Music World but worldwide.
Morsefest! 2014 is something that unconsciously, must have been in the back of Morse's mind for quite sometimes, although just thanks to an insisting church Pastor and an inspiring talk to Morse's wife, it finally saw the light of the day.
The live album includes the whole two-days setlist, in which Morse played two of his most pivotal albums, Testimony and One in their entirety. Despite the vaste quantity of music on this quadruple CD, there is never a dull moment throughout the whole performances. Through the extraordinary support of his long time fellow friend musician Mike Portnoy and a full orchestra behind him, Morse tells, through these two albums, his whole autobiography in music with such passion, devotion and honesty second to none, especially in tracks like "Long Story" "...
The girl I loved went off and got married to a millionaire, for fifty dollars I'd play five hours in the desert air. Some of us have to hit bottom before we'll ever see above the ground...".
There are some real special moments in this live album; Morse does not leave behind his many music side projects and the little masterpieces he wrote with them and use such wonderful music creations as part of his Encores. When everyone at these shows thought they had been blessed, by witnessing the Spock's Beard wonderful renditions of Wind At My Back or The Light, they certainly did not see coming the gigantic 30-minutes-plus version of the classic Stranger In Your Soul by Transatlantic. No better way to close the whole life circle in music for Neal Morse and his devoted fans on this weekend of Progressive feast.
The magnitude of the album, the artistry of Morse and the whole array of musicians accompaining him are first class. Even the slightly indulging instrumental moments can be easily forgiven, given the spectacular level of craftmanship on this live album. For Those About To Prog Rock, as Neal Morse certainly represents beautifully, We Salute You.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Morsefest 2014! will be released on 21st August 2015 and can be purchased Here