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Veronica says that her influences are Katie Webster, Otis Spann, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Pinetop

Perkins. Joining Veronica who provides vocals and piano on these 8 numbers are Mike Walsh, Ben
Rodgers and Chris Anzalone on drums with Don Davis and Joel Edinberg providing saxophones.
We all know the possibilities and the power you can achieve with a trio, so let me assure you that
the piano, drums and saxophone here are full of zest, vim and vigour.

Veronica opens the album with ‘You Ain’t Unlucky’, which is dominated by her splendid New
Orleans rolling piano and commanding voice. The energetic second-line-strut drum work and
dreamy. breezy wailing saxophone only add to the foot tappin’ joy. With ‘Clarksdale Sun,’ the band
raises the temperature with a swinging back beat, swaying saxophone and searing, punching
boogie-woogie piano. Katie Webster’s ‘Whoo Whee Sweet Daddy’, joyfully swings with the
exuberance of youth. Veronica’s enticingly commanding voice blends beautifully with her sweet
piano playing as the saxophone and drums define the groove. ‘Ode To Jerry Lee,’ is quite simply a

wonderful dexterous, ‘hammer down killer’ piano piece. Louis Jordan’s ‘Is You Is My Baby’ is
splendidly re-worked as a heart achingly questioning ballad.

Greatly endorsed!

Brian Harman.

Cyrille Capelle—Point Com—Kebra’s

Cyrille is not a blues artist. Originally from Lille in France, he is
now based in Paris and is best known as a song-writer and

performer. The lyrics on this album are sung in French and the
style throughout is more of a classic rock approach, with the
opener, ‘Il Ou Elle’, in more of an 80s or 90s pop-rock style.

So what is this album doing here? Well, ’Même Pas Mal’ is a

modern rock number with a slow boogie base and some very
bluesy guitar work – it would be a stand-out track on a
contemporary blues-rock album. I did wonder if ‘Né Sous Le
Signe’ might be related to ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ – it’s not but it is an attractive, moody piece of
bluesy Americana before it morphs into late period Beatles towards the end (!). ‘Lâcher Les Chiens’,
‘Touchez Pas La Planète’ and the grinding closer “Ainsi Va La Vie’ head back towards a blues-rock
sound, there is more classic rock on further tracks – though usually with blues-rock solos – and

‘Unisex’ sounds like a subtle updating of a 60s garage/ beat band tackling a vintage R’n’B number!

Many years ago, most rock bands were strongly blues-inflected, and were the subject of several
books looking at the interplay between rock and blues. It would be much more difficult to write
such a book now, but if you were to try, this album would certainly be in there.

Norman Darwen