LIVE IN DENMARK Dana Fuchs (Ruf) *****
One of the most powerful blues singers working today, Fuchs has captured lightning in a bottle with Live In Denmark. Recorded on a single night last October at Godset in Kolding, Denmark this is an intense album with no overdubs or post-production fixes- it’s a force of nature.
It was decided last fall by management and label to record a live show during a mini-tour of Denmark. “My previous record, Borrowed Time, was underserved because of the pandemic and this felt like a chance to make things right” Dana says. “This album is raw, honest and alive in ways I didn’t think were possible to capture. It’s me at my most vulnerable and most powerful, all at once.” Hey, she ain’t whistling Dixie, kids.
Fuchs’ raw power is on full display here, placing her on the same level as singers like Janis Joplin, and her band grooves most excellently. Jon Diamond on guitar and bg vocals, Kevin Mackall on bass and Piero Perelli on drums play without ever getting in her way, it’s a perfect combination. “When I finally sat down and listened to what we’d captured, I wept” Fuchs says. “I remember thinking ‘Damn, I wish so many people who have never heard me before could hear this’ and I never feel this way about my own work.” She’s right to be proud of this disc.
Live In Denmark is 10 tracks in all, including a powerful cover of the Stones’ classic Sympathy For The Devil. Pulling songs mainly from her Ruf Records albums like the aforementioned Borrowed Time, this is a well-balanced disc between hot rockin’ numbers like Double Down On Wrong (the opening track) and heartbreaking blues ballads like Nothing You Own, which put Dana’s vocal gifts on full display. This one of those albums every blues/rock fan should check out, and those who haven’t heard Dana before will be able to hear cuts out on my internet radio blues shows in April on stations in the UK and Canada- I just have to share this.
HOT TRACKS: Hard Road, Nothing You Own, Battle Lines
FIGHT ON: TRUE BLUES VOL.2 Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Guy Davis (Yellow Dog Records) *****+
This is one gem of an acoustic blues album. True Blues Vol.2 is 3 old friends, delivering raw, heartfelt individual performances with just acoustic guitar and voice. Corey Harris says “the thematic tie of the record lies in the fact that we are three African-American bluesmen who are fighting to maintain our cultural legacy and heritage.” That this album succeeds on every level is a whopper of an understatement.
Harris, Hart and Davis have been friends since meeting at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1996, and this is a follow-up to Vol. I released nearly 30 years ago. TBV2 blends traditional material from people like Charley Patton and Rev. Gary Davis with originals. The songs were recorded separately in Virginia, Mississippi and New York, but you can’t tell from listening through as it sounds like they used the same studio. The production is bare, crisp and clear, and some of the songs are quite personal to the guys. Screamin’ and Hollerin’ is the first Charley Patton song Hart learned, Harris wrote What’s That I Smell about his time spent in New Orleans. Hart also wrote If The Blues Was Money about his friend Henry Townsend, who died in 2006 at the age of 96. He performs the song on a Sears Silvertone-branded 1950’s Kay flat-top guitar.
True Blues Vol.2 manages to sound historic and current at the same time; totally mesmerizing. It’s a loving celebration of a shared music and friendship too, and you can feel that in the way these songs hang together. It’s 9 songs in all, 5 originals and 4 covers. If well played solo acoustic blues is what you dig, you won’t do any better than this record.
https://yellowdogrecords.com/trueblues
HOT TRACKS: If The Blues Was Money (Hart), See Me When you Can (Davis), What’s That I Smell (Harris)
BROKEN RIVER Hank Alrich (independent) *****
This is a new album from a man known as a cornerstone of the Austin music scene. A renowned musician, producer and cultural architect, it would be too easy to describe Broken River as ‘country’, but he’s a storyteller on the same level as Ian Tyson. Gentle pop melodies mix with that Austin vibe for a compelling and engaging time.
Broken River is described by Texas music writer Joe Nick Patoski as “the sound of Austin” and as “both a storm warning and a meditation”, and that’s the truth of it. “This record is a conversation with my younger self” Hank says. It’s about where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and how the music keeps us moving forward.” The feel of this reminds me of something Meat Loaf told me when I did a phone interview with him in 2011… talking about art, whether it be music or theater, he said “if you’re not after the truth, you’re wasting your time”, and it feels like there’s truth behind every song on this album.
Broken River has, for the most part, a gentle and easy feel so getting inside the songs as a listener is almost effortless. Production-wise the sound is sparse yet rich at the same time making it easy to get lost while the record plays, in the very best way. The press info calls Alrich “a lifelong songwriter and sonic explorer, approaching music as a spiritual practice guided by vibration, serendipity and fidelity to the song itself rather than market or genre”, the same feeling I get from Ian Tyson, especially his latter day stuff.
Sometimes you want music to kick you in the ass to get you going, other times you want it to pull you down into a space of reflection and peace, and that’s exactly what Broken River does for me. I highly recommend giving it a try.
HOT TRACKS: Fast Money, Locomotive Wind, Broken River
