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his guitar playing. He has really nailed the acoustic guitar style of this blues genre and if you are a
fan of Scapper Blackwell or Mississippi John Hurt, I’m sure you will really enjoy this album.

Ged Wilson

Tommy Z—Plug in & Play—South Blossom Records

Tommy Z is an ace guitarist from Buffalo, NY. Offering a mix
from Chicago blues to blues/rock with a jazzy tinge. He has
travelled the world and been a sideman to the late Pinetop

Perkins, proof enough of his authentic chops and commitment to
the music.

Here Tommy offers 11 tracks, recorded at the Soundstage Studios
in Nashville and GCR Studio in Buffalo. Eight of the tracks were
produced by Tommy himself while the remaining tracks had the
legendary Tom Hambridge on the desk.

The eleven tracks here are all very different, tied together by Tommy’s excellent guitar work and
his controlled yet powerful vocal delivery. Why this man is not known in every corner of the world
is beyond me.

Sometimes an outright rocker and sometimes so laid back he might fall off the chair, this work is
just stunningly good. Take the title track, ‘Plug In and Play’ a soaring rocker with surging B3 and an
over-all sound that reminds me a bit of Credence Clearwater Revival. Terrific!

‘Tommy Guns’ is a funky piece, one of the tracks produced by Tom Hambridge, a moderate speed
rocker with a super guitar-driven riff and a stunning guitar solo. Check out too the longest track on
the album, ‘Sticky Lips’ (7.38mins), a restrained minor key instrumental with a kind of west coast

vibe. Outstanding stuff.

Get this one ASAP, you will not regret it!

Ian K McKenzie

Muddy Gurdy—Homecoming—Chantilly Negra

The French band Muddy Gurdy is based around the hypnotic
sound of the hurdy-gurdy or more accurately, its cousin the vielle
à roue. That is a stringed instrument that makes its sounds by
rotating a rosined wheel, using a small manually turned handle,

against the strings. Melodies are played on a keyboard by
pressing small wooden blocks against one or more of the strings
to change their pitch. The instrument has a number of ‘drone’
strings.

The band—Tia Gouttebel (vocals, guitar), Gilles Chabenat (vielle à
roue), and Marc Glomeau (percussion) from the the Auvergne

area of France—seek to demonstrate the universality of blues by using their instruments and voices
to recast American music in their own mould.

The opener ‘Afro Briolage’, a scene setter, reminds me a lot of some of the Lomax field recordings
made in Africa and later in the southern states. Most of the other tracks are covers of blues and