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Davy Knowles—The Invisible Man—Where Are
You Now
Davy Knowles was the guitarist/singer with the young
Isle of Man blues rock group Back Door Slam and
although his last solo album was an acoustic, folky
record this new one sees him back to blues-based
rock. The band is a trio of Tod Bowers (bass) and Mike
Hansen (drums), with Davy handling vocals and gui-
tars (often over-dubbed), ‘Good to Know Ya’ is a great
opener, catchy guitar and lively drums and bass and
with Davy’s soulful vocals over the top – good guitar solo too. ‘Tell Me What You
Want Me to Be’ has heavy wah-wah guitar and pounding drums – reminded me of
Bad Company – and the title track is very like classic Free – both Davy’s Paul
Rogers-like vocals and the crashing chords and keening lead guitar.
Many people have singled out the up tempo ‘Around Here’ as the standout track here
but I thought that it and ‘All My Life’ and also ‘Running Out of Moonlight’ were more
commercial-sounding rock. ‘Welcome to the Real World’ is a bluesy ballad with
electric slide guitar, and there’s more slide on ‘You Love the Rain’, while ‘One Wrong
Move’ is a catchy rocker. ‘No More to Weep’ – is a slow blues in the classic Free style
– with very Paul Kossoff-like lead guitar and by contrast we finish the album with
the melodic acoustic ballad ‘Wonder You Are', with acoustic slide guitar. I was really
impressed by Davy’s vocals on this record, as well as his guitar playing and the
rhythm section also play their Davy part in a fine album that has real echoes of the
blues/soul/rock combination pioneered by the group Free in the late 60s and early
70s.
Graham Harrison
Fabrizio Poggi—Healing Blues—Appaloosa Re-
cords
This latest record from Italian blues harmonica play-
er Fabrizio Poggi also contains two tracks from his
2017 album with Guy Davis - ‘Sonny and Brownie’s
Last Train’ - the title track and ‘Walk On’. ‘Last Train’
is an original in the style of S&B, while ‘Walk On’ is
one of the duo’s most popular songs. This album also
has another track with Fabrizio and Guy - ‘Song for
Angelina’ – which also has Guy singing and playing
guitar with Fabrizio on harp but this is more melodic folk than blues.
The album starts with the beautiful gospel song ‘I Want Jesus to Walk with Me’ with
Shar White on vocals (Shar has worked as a backing singer with many artists
including notably Eric Clapton). Shar’s wonderful voice is out front of backing