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on lead guitar on a couple of tracks, Rick Streff on keyboards, Bill Ruffino on bass and
    James Cunningham drums. They suit the lead duo perfectly.

    The songs are mostly originals and as I’ve already more than hinted, good ones too

    –  listen  to  the  tight  control  of  ‘Peacock  Strut’,  the  tough,  anthemic  ‘’S-H-E-E-E
    W-O-M-A-N’,  or the adaptation of the hymn ‘It Is Well With My Soul’ (from 1873!)
    that closes the set, now with a main title of ‘Memphis Bound’ to what is now a fine
    tribute to Beale Street’s musicians past and present..


    Lil’ Green’s ‘Why Don’t You Do Right?’ is a fine, jazzy number, updated to today, whilst
    ‘Deep Regretful Blues’ is  a pounding blues-rock styled shuffle, but there are no poor
    tracks among the ten here – each is well worth your time. Rather a fine release all

    round, this.

    Norman Darwen


    (www.sunnybleau.com)








                                                 Micki Free – Dreamcatcher – Bungalo Records

                                                 Blues-rock with a little twist is very much the order
                                                 of the day on this six-track, 25 minutes long CD EP

                                                 from  singer  and  guitarist  Micki.  He  is  a  former
                                                 member  of  Shalamar  who  has  also  worked  with
                                                 many blues and rock greats, and he brings many

                                                 varied influences to bear on the material here.

                                                 Things open strongly with the slow, powerful blues-
                                                 rock  of  ’When  The  Devil’s  At  Your  Door’,  sung

                                                 extremely  impressively  by  guest  Ray  Greene,
                                                 vocalist with Santana and Tower of Power, among
    others. Carlos Santana’s band also provides drummer Cindy Blackman Santana and

    bass player Benny Rietveld.  The funk-tinged ‘My Sweet Honey’, the fierce ‘Night
    Crawler’ and the uplifting, gospel-tinged ‘We Are One’ are all fine examples of Micki’s
    blues-rock style, but I did say there was a twist; take a listen to the two versions –

    one studio, one live – of ‘Dreamcatcher’, where Micki combines the mellower side of
    his blues-rock approach with his Native American flute playing. He has recorded five
    albums of this style of flute playing – he has Cherokee/ Comanche heritage as well

    as Irish – and the result here is a memorable and haunting instrumental that should
    please fans of either style. The two versions are also quite different.

    I  was  unsure  what  to  expect  when  this  landed  through  the  letter-box.  Now  I’m

    impressed.

    Norman Darwen

    (www.mickifree.com)
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