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Adam Levy (guitar), Kenny Banks (keyboards), Rashaan Carter (bass) and Abe Rounds (drums)
all playing exquisitely. ‘No More Will I Run’ is quite folky which leads us in to Lizz’s version of
Sandy Denny’s ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’ – one of the 20th. Century’s greatest songs and
Lizz really does the song justice, with producer Chris Bruce adding his acoustic guitar to Levy’s
electric. I saw Lizz and Adam do this song at last year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival and it’s good to
now have this studio version. We finish with another (semi) acoustic song Gillian Welch’s ‘I Made
a Lover’s Prayer’, for me not a great song but even here it’s just the quality of Lizz’s voice that
lures you in and envelops you – although the song does have a nice organ solo and we end with
lovely melodic strings. Lizz has recently said that since moving to Chicago the city has influenced
her to sing more blues – I don’t think that you will find much conventional blues on this record
but what you will hear is one of the great black female voices that follows on from great voices
of the past like Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.

Graham Harrison
Ndidi O—Simple Songs for Complicated Times—Black Hen
Music ASIN : B0CVN53VY7

Canadian songstress Ndidi O (Onukwulu) has moved from British
Columbia to New York, to Toronto, to Europe and then back to
the USA’s West Coast before reuniting with Canadian blues
guitarist Steve Dawson after nearly two decades for him to
produce this new album. The band are Dawson (guitars), Sam
Howard (bass), Chris Gestrin (keyboards) and Gary Craig
(drums), with Khari McClelland, Dawn Pemberton and Keri
Latimer (backing vocals), the album was recorded at Dawson’s
Henhouse studio in Nashville. We begin with ‘Get Gone’ an
atmospheric gospel-infused rocker with Ndidi engaging in call
and response with the backing vocalists and there is jazzy electric
piano and biting electric slide guitar. ‘Ode to Death’ features Dawson on acoustic resonator and
also electric and isn’t as dark as the title suggests with Ndidi’s voice sounding almost operatic at
times and ‘Light On’ also features this mixture of acoustic and electric guitars also mixed with
electric piano, ‘So Cold’ has a Tom Waits vibe with delicious double bass, organ and electric slide.

‘Don’t Come Back’ is moody and reminded me of Amy Winehouse, ‘In May’ is a gentler track with
acoustic and steel guitar and ‘Change This Life’ is more bluesy with call-and-response vocals.
‘Too Late’ is lighter and up-tempo, while ‘Grief’ is an acoustic, atmospheric ballad with haunting
pedal steel guitar and ‘Working Girl’ is based on acoustic guitar topped off with organ and electric
guitar and finally ‘Worth’ is quite jaunty as she assesses what life has offered her but not delivered!
It comes complete with a clunky (but perfect) toy organ solo. This is a fine album that relies on
Mr. Dawson’s production and guitar playing as much as Ndidi’s vocals and while I think that there
are some excellent songs here – ‘Get Gone’, ‘So Cold’, ‘Change This Life’, ‘Grief’ – I just feel like a
few more songs of this calibre could have made this a truly classic album.
Graham Harrison

Jean-Jaques Milteau—Key to the Highway—Diggers Factory
ASIN : B0CVNBY4GS
French harmonica legend Jean-Jaques Milteau says that the
harmonica was his ‘key to the highway’ as playing it from the age
of 15 has given him an international career. On this new album
JJ enlists the help of vocalists including Denmark’s Mike Andersen,
Canada’s Harrison Kennedy, the USA’s Carlton Moody and
Northern Ireland’s Michael Robinson, all under the musical
direction of Johan Dalgaard on keyboards. The rest of the
musicians are Laurent Verneray (bass), Raphael Chassin and
Toma Milteau (drums) and David Donatien (percussion).