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Boogie Beasts — Blues from Jupiter — Naked

No these guys haven’t been travelling in outer space - this Belgian
four-piece recorded this set in Jupiter Studios in March 2021, as
part of a lockdown broadcast over Facebook to mark their tenth
anniversary. The material here is all blues covers and was enthu-
siastically received by the online audience, and a few days later

Reinhard Holstein, the owner of German label Juke Joint 500,
suggested they release it on album. As they were about to release
their third set though, they decided to postpone it - until now.

This is a loud, energetic and grooving set, leaning towards blues-rock with plenty of wailing
harp and strong guitar work over a powerhouse rhythm section, but the material is blues all the
way. The eleven tracks run from well-known numbers like John Lee Hooker’s ‘Boogie Chillun’,
here given a slightly different treatment from the all-out boogie Hooker’s material often gets,
and a driving version of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Who’ll Be Next’ to the droning Mississippi hill country
sound of Robert Belfour’s ‘Pushin’ My Luck’. Check out too the Zepppelin-esque cover of Son
House’s ‘Grinnin’ In Your Face’ or the supercharged ‘You Don’t Love Me’.

It is easy to understand Reinhard’s enthusiasm and desire to release this album. A real winner
all the way!

Norman Darwen

Robert Hill & Joanne Lediger—Revelation—Independent

(www.roberthillband.com)
Whoever made that famous comment about the devil having all
the best tunes had obviously never heard this album. Singer/
guitarist/ harpman and keyboards player Robert was born in
North Little Rock, Arkansas and has been playing around the New
York area for around three decades. For half of that time he has
been working with singer Joanne Lediger, and here they are
helped out by Robert’s daughter Paulina on vocals, Steve Gelfand
on bass and drummer Frank Pagano.

Steve wrote four tracks for this set - the rollicking ‘Jesus By The Riverside’, sung by Joanne and
with a traditional sound, unlike ‘Pay One Way Or Another’ which brings Ray Charles back to the
church. ‘A Devil’s Fool’ is set to a fine rocking blues arrangement, and ‘Preacher’s Blues’ has a
Hill Country flavour.

All the remaining tracks are traditional, by the likes of Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, and
Mississippi Fred McDowell. It’s no surprise then that Robert is a fine slide player, though his
sound is updated (shades of Ry Cooder on ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’, and especially on ‘Jesus On
The Mainline’), though always respectful to his forebears. One notable exception to what I’ve
written is Paulina’s showcase on the rhumba blues of Tom Waits’ ‘Way Down In The Hole’ - but
lyrically it fits perfectly.

Rather a fine set, this. Can I get an “Amen”?

Norman Darwen