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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