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and a restrained 'Crossroads' guitar riff and electric piano (courtesy of John Medeski), while
    'Didn’t We Have a Time' is a lovely, delicate melodic ballad.

    Soul legend William Bell sings on the vintage soul stomper 'Never Want To Be Kissed'

    complete with brass, strings and girlie backing vocals, we also get more strings on a reprise of
    the title track. 'Juicy Juice' is a funky popper with ramshackle drums from Cody that reminded
    me of G Love (who the brothers have also worked with) and 'Rabbit Foot' has a similar groove
    and we finish with 'Authentic' as Luther and Lamar sing about the history and philosophy of
    the Dickinson family with Luther’s daughters Lucia and Isla Belle joining in on backing vocals
    and we also get our longest burst of Luther's slide guitar. I was slightly disappointed by this
    album, the brothers now spend most of their time producing and engineering on other

    people's albums and the production here is good throughout but I thought that the songs
    weren't particularly strong — as though all the energy had gone into the production and the
    groove and I'm also getting a bit fed up with their 'hippy, dippy' lyrics. However, the brothers
    have created their own unique sound that fuses their own personal history with the historic
    sounds of the Mississippi hill country and if you like their brand of blues-meets-trance then

    I'm sure you'll like this record.

    Graham Harrison

                                          Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse—Good Times End
                                          Times—  Grow Vision  ASIN : B09T9TZY3C

                                          Beaux Gris Gris and The Apocalypse sound like the archetypal

                                          New Orleans band but are in fact a duo based in California
                                          comprising Greta Valenti (who was admittedly born in
                                          Louisiana) and Brit Robin Davey (formerly bass player in The
                                          Hoax and also known as Gutbucket Slim). Both are also multi
                                          media entrepreneurs and artists involved in film, TV and
                                          various businesses and also playing in the group Well Hung
                                          Heart. On this their second album Greta handles the vocals,

                                          she has a pop/alt. rock voice rather than the usual blues wail
                                          but this gives the music a rather different vibe, Robin handles
    the lead guitar (he's obviously learned from brother Jesse) and they are also joined by Brits
    Stephen Mildwater (bass, keyboards), Emma Jonson (keyboards, vocals) as well as old Hoax
    drummer Mike Barrett.

    We blast off with 'Fill Me Up' a bluesy shuffle with Greta's powerful vocals and Robin's

    stinging guitar. 'Bungalow Paradise' is totally different — sophisticated and cool, while
    'Trouble Is Coming' is back to the blues with a sinister Crescent City/Dr. John vibe — albeit
    with some more modern production tweaks. And speaking of blues, on 'Is This The Blues'
    Greta gives us various scenarios and then asks "Is this the Blues?" this is over a cool late night
    blues backing with walking bass that all heats up towards the end. 'Gris Gris' is more rock and

    roll rather than N’Orleans, with nice boogie piano and call and response vocals, 'Watching The
    World Fall Down' is melodic pop — rather in the style of Abba — and 'Lucid' is a late night
    ballad with a tasty slide guitar solo. To quote Greta'a own words "Is this the Blues?" — er... yes
    and er... no, as I said she doesn't have a conventional blues voice — which to my ears adds a
    pleasant freshness — and they also add modern production techniques so that this is very
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