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BB & The Bullets—High Tide—Dixie Frog

After New Zealand musician and producer Brian Baker,
vocals and guitar, returned home from Australia he

joined Brad McMillan; drums and Stu Duncan; bass,
forming the trio B.B. & The Bullets. Eddie Rayner, from
Split Enz and Crowded House, provides keyboards.

Together, they have released their debut album on the

French label Dixie Frog. Recorded in Whanganui, NZ at
producer and band leader Brian’s Nixon Street recording
studio. The twelve numbers are a combination of covers and originals. The rocking
opener ‘Something In The Water’, contains echoes of Free.

Albert King’s ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’, feisty, slightly rocking pace invitingly draws

you in. The dramatic, rocking, ‘High Tide’, is a tale of a farmer pitted against the
impending deluge of the natural course of a river. On Bo Diddley’s ‘I Can Tell’, the
infectious, slow guitar entices you in.

The slow shoulder-swinging blues of ‘Seven Ways To Sin’, explains exactly how

enticing his girlfriend is. Rufus Thomas’s ‘Walking The Dog’, is transformed into an
appealing, strutting rocker. The grooving ‘Little Fishes’ is about how we all get our
day to shine. On The Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’, the band succinctly
maintains its infectiously heady, moody melancholic blues magnetism.

On ‘Letting Go’, the bass creates a splendid swaying atmosphere of pessimism on a
reluctant lover’s willingness to say goodbye. The band continues to exude the
richness and warmth of B.B. King’s ‘The Thrill Is Gone’, in its reluctance to
emotionally let go.

The instrumental ‘Brian’s Boogie (Hurry Home)’, features lovely enticing, fluid guitar
matched with well paced punchy percussion. Finally, ‘Big Foot Running’, comes with
pounding percussion, fluid guitars, dream time dramas and disasters, all written in
the night sky.

A very fine debut!

Brian Harman

Manu Lanvin—Man On A Mission—Gel Production

GEL61CD0010

Fifty one year old, French bluesman Manu Lanvin, is the
son of the highly regarded actor French Gérard Lanvin.

Over the course of seven albums, Manu has become a

driving force in French blues-rock. In 2014, he
represented France at the 2014 International Blues

Challenge in Memphis and won the 2015 Cognac Blues
Passions Prize.