Page 52 - BiTS_11_NOVEMBER_2023_Neat

guitar work and bluesy guitar licks add some real intensity and you can really feel that raw
drive in Mike’s vocal. Mark Griffin lays a great foundation on drums. There is a real 1990’s vibe
to this song with a ‘Happy Mondays’ style bounce to it. The song was inspired by a lockdown
dream of actress June Smith no less! Mike describes his music as ‘New Era Blues’ and I think
you will find this fits the bill! Go check this one out.

Ged Wilson

D. Scott Riggs—These Hard Times Will Come to Pass—Pure

Panhandle Music/ Bandcamp

Scott comes from the panhandle of Florida, the roughly rectan-
gular bit of the state that lies to the west of the peninsula that
contains the bulk of the touristy venues in the ‘sunshine state’.
His self-labelled ‘panhandle blues’ is a wonderful combination of
pre-War, delta, Piedmont, and country blues, with a splash of
jazz, a touch of gospel and hokum with some Cajun and jug band
music for added flavour. It is an auditory delight.

Recorded in his own studio, Scott has managed to produce an
album that at one and the same time, feels both ancient and
modern. The quality of the recording is exemplary but somehow Scott’s guitar work and vocals
manage to elicit the sounds and aura of such music a hundred or more years ago. Most of the
axe work is undertaken on resonator guitars, which sometimes take on the tonal qualities of
cigar-box/diddly bow; The effect is magnificent.

Scott has told me that he is a spiritual though not denominational person and there is a tinge
of gospel sensibility about many of the tracks and many have titles reflecting the same ethos.
All the songs were written by Mr Riggs.

The title track ‘These Hard Times Will Come to Pass’ is an outstanding song but there are many

more. Check out ‘The Devil Will Get You’ and ‘Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin’, not forgetting, of
course the final freeing, cathartic instrumental ‘Hard Times No More’. Wonderful!

Ian K McKenzie
Bert Deivert—Pony Blues—Bert Deivert

This one is an almost pure-acoustic album that comes with both
family and world connections. Bert Deivert is an American who
has lived in Sweden for many, many years. In his youth (in the
USA) he was a street musician and worked with a plethora of
top-class musicians and started his recording career.

Over the years, Bert has met and mentored dozens, if not hun-
dreds of musicians and he has a family of skilled musicians
around him. When developing this album, Bert drew on those
connections and although his (and his family's) contributions
were recorded in his studio in Sweden, the other participants
made their additions in their own studios around the world: Thailand, Venezuela and Den-
mark.

The music is described by Bert as “a collection of favourite songs from my acoustic blues and
folk repertoire and a few of my own songs” and it is a delight. The ‘covers’ include the title track