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To sum up then, if you like your blues with energy, soul and convincing, then try “Hard Road”. It
certainly fits the bill!

Norman Darwen

Big B and the Actual Proof—The Noir Album—Independent

(www.bigbandtheactualproof.com)
“Film Noir… Meets Blues Guitar” it says on the sleeve, and
indeed the themes on this album concern treacherous sirens in

tight red dresses, mickey finns, and some rather unsavoury
characters. The musical backings combine almost soundtracks
for such movies but played by a modern blues band, so this is
certainly not a run-of-the-mill blues release. Try the closing
instrumental, ‘ Just Another Harlem Sunset’…

Big B himself is singer and guitarist Brian “Big B” Burleson from
Detroit, Michigan, with The Actual Proof being fellow Motor City musicians Mitch Sharpe on
bass and drummer Erin Pitman. Several guests also help to put meat on the bones, including
the UK’s Jim McCarty (of The Yardbirds) who contributes a guitar solo to the lurching blues of
‘About To Get Evil’.

On a track like ‘God’s Lonely Man’, the overall effect is akin to Jimi Hendrix encountering The
Theatre Bizarre Orchestra. I’ve never actually heard the latter, but they guest on this set too
and their name certainly fits the music!

So, a rather different and individual set. As the blurb says, this is equally rooted in a black and
white movie world and the world of today’s tough blues-rock, the not so self-indulgent side.
There’s even a subtle quote from Doctor John’s spooky classic ‘Walk On Gilded Splinters’ if you
listen carefully.

Norman Darwen

Fab Zoreil—Blues Sur Paname—Independent

How best to describe this? How about “dark, gritty Parisian indie
singer/ songwriter rock-blues- world”? Not too snappy a
category, I admit, but hopefully reasonably accurate.

… But then, that doesn’t include a track like ‘Paris A Repris’,
which starts like a reggae number by The Police (Sting’s old
outfit), throws in some free-jazz and keeps a toe-hold in the
blues camp too. There’s some scatting along with his guitar
work, George Benson style, in places — try the throbbing ‘Tu M
Demandais’, with its spot-on rhythm section too, and ‘Al Cool’ is
a very funky number with strong echoes of 60s boogaloo-blues.
‘Les Grands Rivières’ is a fine sinuous blues.

Sometimes the rhythms – just Fab and his drummer Olivier Hurtu – had me a little puzzled,
though sounding strangely familiar. Then I discovered Fab has spent years on Reunion Island
in the Indian Ocean, and I realised it’s that island’s séga rhythms that were coming to mind (a
long story) – distinctive and individual, and that same description can apply to all the music on
this CD. That’s a bit snappier, hein? Et voilà…

Norman Darwen