Page 37 - BiTS_02_FEBRUARY_2021

David Rotundo—So Much Trouble—Dreams We Share ASIN:

B08MBY6X6Y

David Rotundo was turned onto blues after seeing harmonica
player James Cotton in Toronto in 1991, he bought a harmonica
and learned to play and six years later formed the band The Blue

Canadians. This album was produced by harmonica virtuoso Lee
Oscar and we get off to a rocking start with 'She's Dynamite'
which features not only David's harp but also Darian Asplund on
sax and Ron Weinstein on organ. 'Funky Side Of Town' is a nice
jazzy blues and 'Hard Times Coming' is an acoustic song with
David singing, playing slide guitar and harp.

The title track is an atmospheric blues ballad and 'Too Blue' continues in similar style with both
featuring nice backup vocals, while 'Drinking Overtime' is a classic drinking blues with a mighty
Hammond organ solo. 'Foolish Love' is a romantic ballad that seemed a bit out of place with the rest
of the material here but does add a bit of variety and allows Darian Asplund a nice breathy sax
break. 'Long Road' is an exotic Indian-influenced track complete with tabla and David on slide

guitar and we finish off with the only non-original 'Trouble In Mind' again an acoustic track with
David on guitar and harp. I'm afraid that I found David's singing, guitar and harmonica playing all
distinctly average however, I did quite enjoy the record mainly because both the band and the songs
were good, with many of the tracks reminding me of British blues from the 60s.

Graham Harrison

Catfish—Exile: Live in Lockdown—Catfish ASIN: B08NJ6VQNC

Catfish are a Sussex-based blues rock band consisting of Paul Long
(keyboards), Paul’s son Matt (vocals and guitar), Kevin Yates
(drums) and Dusty Bones (bass), they were approached by the

Maastricht Blues Festival in Holland in summer 2020 to do a full
band live stream, which is where this recording originated. We
begin with 'Broken Man' from their first album, a very dramatic
slow blues of over eleven minutes with a great lead guitar solo
from Matt, 'Break Me Down' ups the tempo and attack, while the
melodic 'Ghosts' slows things down again. Like the previous two
tracks the funky 'Soulbreaker' is a track from their second album 'Burning Bridges' as is 'The Root

of All Evil' driven by riffing lead guitar and swelling organ.

More tracks from 'Burning Bridges' follow 'The Big Picture', 'Archangel', 'Too Far to Fall' and 'Exile'
itself, they are very close to the original album versions with maybe a bit less effects and
processing but they still sound very tight despite the band not being able to do gigs during

lockdown. 'Better Days' from the first album is a really catchy track delivered really well - I prefer
it to the album version with its stronger vocals and lovely Jeff Beck-like guitar solo. Although this
kind of blues rock is a bit too 'heavy' for me it is very well played, the agile rhythm section of Yates
and Bones power everything along and Paul Long's keyboards really fill out the sound while Matt