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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Every album, for an artist, represents a new chapter in their sonic book about their life stories. In Janiva Magness's case, the new album Love Wins Again portrays a really special moment, dense of positivity and love for life in the new chapter of this very talented singer and songwriter's career.
This is, without a doubt, one of the happiest times for Janiva Magness, judging by what she mentions on the sleeve notes of the record too. On her twelwth release, the American Artist offers a splendid blend of soul and roots with tints of Americana here and there, all carried through with her incredibly powerful voice.
The opener Love Wins Again tells a lot about Magness's good feeling. The song is very catchy, one that can surely be radio friendly enough, due to the perfect combo of Magness's voice and the tune's upbeat tempo.
Janiva Magness's range of styles is pretty unique too. She moves so graciously from soulful tunes like Long As I Can See The Light or When You Hold Me to the splendid, bluesy Moth To A Flame with such simplicity, something that comes from true talent.
Your House Is Burnin' deserves a special mention on Love Wins Again. This is the track in which the American Artist put the Soul Sister mantel on, due to a magnificent combination of different elements of R&B, blues and soul and her voice, which reaches some incredible highs. She truly becomes, on this tune, a female version of the late great James Brown in every sense of the word.
The new album reaches another great, although this time more personal, peak on that very delicate, intimate song which is Just Another Lesson. Magness explores, lyrically, relationships between couples with great honesty and her voice draws beautifully the different emotions carried by the imaginary couple in question, during the track.
Love Wins Again is a genuine album, there is absolutely no doubts on that. Although it may be not Magness's Magnum Opus, this record is a great return to form and contains some really great songs. Moreover, it shows an artist in splendid shape, vocally and lyrically. It's easy to say that, on Magness's new record, it is not just the love that wins again but also the talent of one of the finest singers and performers worldwide.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Love Wins Again is out now and available on Amazon
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
An album title like Time Has Come could have never been more correct. Ben Poole's new studio album is a clear statement on the British gunslinger's ability to flex his musical muscles at 360 degrees, on his new release.
Time Has Come, masterfully produced by King King's drummer and producer Wayne Proctor, is an accurate portrait of the artistic growth of Poole's career so far. Where the 2014 Live At The Royal Albert Hall album showcased Poole's ability as a live performer on many levels, Time Has Come demonstrates instead how this artist has matured as a songwriter too, on his new studio album. The songs on the new record often outline love matters and relationships, which Poole is able to deliver with great craftmanship through some real killer guitar solos and through his voice, which becomes better with each passing album.
The Guitar Virtuoso from South of England practises very well, at times, on Time Has Come the musical preaching of artists like Robert Cray or Jonny Lang still maintaining a personal trademark on every track.
Longing For A Woman is Poole's personal vocal masterpiece of the album. Rarely, in the past, the British artist has been able to deliver vocals of such great intensity as much as he has done on this song.
The album shows in full also Poole's great musical background. If You Want To Play With My Heart and You've Changed bring back timeless memories of the Motown soul period, through Poole's impeccable deliveries.
I Think I Love You Too Much and Time Might Never Come are two authentic blues pearls, in which Poole is able to craft soft, crepuscolar atmospheres through his phenomenal ability as a guitarist. The latter contains one of the best guitar solos that the British artist has ever recorded in his career.
The closing The Question Why has that unmistakable, catchy blues and soul combo of styles so close to the heart of Poole's artistic background, with an excellent work on bass by Steve Amadeo.
The British guitarist and songwriter clearly demonstrates, on Time Has Come, his complete versatility and talent on an album that sees him reaching a new high of his career. An excellent comeback for a rising star.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Time Has Come is out now and it is available on Manhaton Records
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Music as an antidote to start a new chapter in life. This is the philosophy adopted by the eclectic and talented guitarist/songwriter Reed Turchi on his just released solo debut album, Speaking In Shadows.
Despite his blues-influenced musical roots, which inspired in the past years three excellent albums of experimental blues/rock released with his band simply called Turchi, the North Carolina-born artist moves definitely two notches away from his musical past in Speaking in Shadows.
Turchi manages to create an eclectic kaleidoscope of sounds, traveling from the glam/ rock of the '70s, as in the tracks Juggling Knives and Ima Bore, to the alternative post-modern rock of Everybody's Waiting and Drawn And Quartered with great class and craftmanship .
Even when the lyrics become darker and highly introspective, Turchi draws very cleverly sonic frames around his songs, fitting perfectly his songwriting style at times deeply personal and crepuscular.
Through every layers and shades of each songs on this well-balanced album, Turchi never stops to surprise and challenge constantly the listener.
One example, in an album that contains many highlights, is the spiritual catharsis occurring in the song Texas Mist, a slow and dark tune that reflects beautifully the internal conflict of the artist, struggling to find himself again. Offamymind is a splendid bluesy tune, in which Turchi confesses to have a hard time to erase from his mind the end of a relationship and in which the talented guitarist offers one of the most intense guitar riffs of the album.
Undoubtedly, Speaking In Shadow represents for Reed Turchi a new sonic path, not only in terms of approaching different music genres but also for the great use of instrumentation that Turchi does on this album. Together with his old friend Adriano Viterbini on guitar, the artist is also supported by a group of musicians of great talent on this record. Art Edmaiston on sax, in particular, shines with his class on the song Floristella, in which Turchi tells the story of his great-grandfather that, back in the early twentieth century ran away from Sicily in Italy to the United States, trying to escape the miserable life of working in a mine.
When one thinks that every corner of the sonic structure of Speaking In Shadow is unveiled, Reed Turchi surprises us all one last time with the final track of the album, View From Angel's Landing. The song, entirely instrumental, is a soft, pleasant guitar duel between electric and acoustic guitars, as if to seal a mirage of hope for a new chapter in the future to come for the American artist.
Those who loved and appreciated Reed Turchi from the beginning, will fully appreciate and understand this new step in sound research that this formidable artist has done through Speaking In Shadows. Turchi's solo album is a declaration of love for music at 360 degrees played with freshness, skill and high level of knowledge and understanding of different music forms. The record is the perfect demonstration that Turchi has many arrows still to shoot in his artistic career. Speaking In Shadows constitutes the perfect and most inspired experimental platform, from which Turchi will not surely fail to pleasantly surprise us again in the future.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Speaking In Shadows is out now and can be purchased via Amazon
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- Written by: Deb Hebert
Album: Blues of Desperation
Artist: Joe Bonamassa
Label: J & R Adventures
Release Date: March 25, 2016
Artist Website
"I challenged myself and started a new book. It's all original music-- and I wouldn't do it any other way. It was a blast," writes blues-rock titan, Joe Bonamassa, of his latest musical endeavor, Blues of Desperation.
For this solo album, longtime producer, Kevin "Caveman" Shirley envisioned a more aggressive sound and pushed more out of Joe by adding a second drummer. Anton Fig, a veteran session musician on several of Bonamassa's recordings, is widely known as a rock player. Greg Morrow, the newcomer to the mix, has roots in soul. Each player's capable of carrying the full weight of these 11 tracks. Together, they create separate room for Michael Rhodes, on bass (and Bonamassa) to explore the depths of these compositions.
Read more: Blues of Desperation: A New Book for Blues Guitarist, Joe Bonamassa
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There is always a lot of curiosity when a new album from the Blues/Rock Titan Joe Bonamassa comes out. Curiosity that becomes also an expectation of the highest standard especially after his last studio album Different Shades Of Blue, in which the Guitar Virtuoso from New York had taken a considerable leap away from blues music.
The good news for all Bonamassa's fans and music lovers in general, is that Blues Of Desperation is a vastly more cohesive work, in comparison to Bonamassa's last studio album. The less good news, especially for those blues lovers who have loved Joe Bonamassa since the dawn of his career, is that with this record, the Guitarist Extraordinaire steps decisively towards the world of rock music.
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
When Jeff Healey passed away in 2008, age 41, because of a sarcoma cancer, the world of music lost prematurily another of its most talented disciples. One of the greatest blues/rock giants of the last quarter of the century, Healey had been writing and composing music even in the hardest moments of his fight for survival. Music that, rather unfortunately, never saw the light of the day for almost 20 years, until now.
Heal My Soul is a full-length new album that includes 12 brand new songs from this formidable artist. Thanks to the determination and the passion of Cristie Healey (Jeff's wife) and Roger Costa, one of Healey's closest friends, we finally get the chance to hear what this prodigious guitarist and songwriter wrote between 1996 and 1998, a period in which the relationship with the members of The Jeff Healey Band was falling apart.
Frankly, there are moments on the record where Healey has never sounded any better than this. The extraordinary capacity of the Canadian-born artist to adapt his ability and talent in different music genres erupts all over Heal My Soul. The Multi-Grammy nominated guitarist and songwriter can play whatever he wishes to and still, everyone will be able to recognise his trademark sound.
When he rocks, he really rocks. The thunderous Please contains some of the best guitar parts Healey has ever written. Same goes for Temptation, a tune that starts gently with an acoustic guitar line, to then explode into a furious sonic rock attack, with Healey's voice sounding as powerful as it has ever been in his career.
Put The Shoe On The Other Feet is a pure funk feast, in which Healey dazzles the listener by leading superbly the tune through the blasting sound of his guitar.
Even when he goes acoustic, Healey is able to create an extraordinary intensity. All The Saints is such a superb tune in its simplicity and the demonstration that true artists don't need anything more than their guitars and voices to create atmospheres able to go straight to the hearts of the fans.
Despite minor glitches in a couple of tracks of the album, not related to Healey's material but more to production and mixing aspects, Heal My Soul shows an artist at the peak of his creativity and reveals to the new fans why Healey has been one of the most influential and original guitarists for almost three decades of blues and rock.
On 25th March, the album's release date, Jeff Healey would have turn 50. Heal My Soul is the tastiest birthday cake he has ever baked. Happy Birthday, Mr. Healey, we truly miss you.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Heal My Soul will be available from 25th March via Mascot Label Group/Provogue
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The greatest thing about being in your twenties is that swagger and the sense of invincibility that the age range carries with, until that fateful moment comes. It is the time when you realise that your teenage years are almost over and you just don't want to let them go. This is exactly the narrative theme ongoing on Happy Bastards, the new album from the talented Andy Frasco & The U.N.
The American collective throw a full-throttle, incandescent goodbye party to their youth, infusing their music formula with an irresistible pastiche of 60's R&B, Soul, Reggae and Dance. Add to this winning recipe, lyrics sometimes funny, other times deep or even, occasionally, on high testosterone level to make you play this album over and over again. The sole goal of the record, though, is to make people want to dance and have a good time and, by jove, they fulfill that superbly.
Despite the album's light-hearted theme, Andy Frasco & The U.N. sound in fabulous form, even more so than their previous, critically-acclaimed third album Half A Man. There are the vibes of a whole Motown-style orchestra in tracks like When You're Lonely (Fill You Up), the East Coast R&B heart-warming sound of tunes like Make It Work, Blame It On The Pu**y and (Oh My My) Can't Get You Off My Mind or the cheeky folkish Rumba of Let's Get Down To Business.
The velvet soul of Good Ride, a song about breaking up, is perhaps the true highlight of an album that manages to incorporate brilliantly so many different musical elements. The band work together in perfect harmony, thanks to the strong and powerful voice of singer, Frasco and the great sonic amalgam of The U.N.
Happy Bastards is an uplifting record that aims to bring joy to everyday life. Even when they use language straight-to-your-face, Frasco and The U.N. manage to keep their style true to themselves, respecting their roots and still offering an incredibly dynamic and fresh sound. A highly entertaining record for any time and any place.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Happy Bastards will be released on 25th March on Ruf Records
