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Marc Loy—Nu(e)—Kebra’s RPRCD54

Marc Loy is a French singer–songwriter singing in French,
naturally enough. He is also strongly blues-influenced.

Try ‘Putain De Blues’ for a good example, with Vincent Buch-

er’s blues harp wailing away. Vincent also adds a lot to ‘Le
Gardien Du Bar’, with its John Lee Hooker boogie flavour, and
delightful last few bars. ‘De L’Air’ opens with soul horns and
morphs into a driving, classic-sounding funk track with more
than a soupçon of rap to the vocal. The frantic ‘Trousse La Vie’
is kind of Hill country styled alt-blues.

The title track has more than a tinge of Americana, and the brief ‘Dieu Merci’ is a gospelly up
tempo number, whilst ‘Il Faudra Faire Vite’ lives up to its title by being an unclassifiable
number that seems to be part blues, part rockabilly and a lot Marc Loy. Then there are tracks
like the opener, ‘Promesses’, the less than one minute long closer ‘Quand Soudain’, and ‘Que
Sont Devenus Nos Rêves’ which owe something to the more inventive vintage singer-songwrit-
ers but not much to the blues itself.

So, this is a varied set, but it may well interest francophone blues fans. And of course maybe
people who want something a little different.

Norman Darwen

Fonky Donkey—Donkeyland—Independent

(www.getdonkeymusic.com)

Based around leader/ guitarist/ singer/ harp player/ founder
Ben “Swamp Donkey” Brenner, this five piece was formed in
2019 and has a very rootsy blues sound. Gil Franklin, from
Little Rock, Arkansas contributes some excellent guitar play-
ing, drummer Lance Womack and bassist Lynn Fitzgerald are
also from Arkansas via Antone’s in Austin, Texas in the
former’s case. These guys have plenty of blues experience and
it shows.

There is a real down-home sensibility on many of the tracks here. Some, like ‘White River Blues’
or ‘Mozark Line’, sound like they should come from rare 78s recorded by the Bihari Brothers
way back, whilst the opener, ‘Queen Of The Devil’s Den’, combines down-home blues with The
Allman Brothers (and maybe The Rolling Stones). There are strong elements of Robert Johnson
on a couple of numbers (combined with hints of Bob Dylan on the raw, electric ‘Not A Canary’),
and of early 50s John Lee Hooker on ‘Oaklawn Blues’.

‘Too Broke To Pay My Dues’ is a slow southern soul slanted performance, and ‘When Gilbo
Sings The Blues’ brings together an R’n’B sensibility with something of a country feel, a Mexican
sound and maybe even a touch of Ry Cooder! So, definitely worth investigating.

Norman Darwen