“Music is known to make you feel a little bit better” sings Marion Lenfant-Preus on ‘Till a quarter to three’. That is certainly true of the Marion & Sobo Band with their new release ‘Esprit Manouche,  recorded right here in Bonn. This is very definitely a Band affair, featuring timeless songs impeccably sung, played by talented musicians and painstakingly produced. Don’t worry about dipping your toes in the perhaps uncharted musical waters of Gypsy Jazz – you will certainly be glad you got your feet wet after hearing Esprit Manouche (Gypsy Spirit)!

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As you can see above, the new CD by Layla Zoe has a stunning cover (shot by Jacques Clérin). Having heard whats on the two silver discs inside, I can safely say that the contents are equally stunning. If there’s any justice, then ‘Gemini’ (released on October 5), should put Layla up there with the very best Blues/Rock vocalists of this, or any other Age, for that matter.  Gemini, the sign of the twins, is fittingly a double pack.  One disc acoustic, and one very much electric (we’re into Led Zeppelin territory here at times). Whilst it is very much Layla’s album,  Bonn guitarist Jan Laacks shines too on here, and this disc was also produced right here in Bonn.

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It was the moment when a band came of age.  A sound was pinned firmly down like a butterfly for all eternity.  There will never be another Thin Lizzy concert with Phil Lynott or ACDC show with Bon Scott, but we still feel the visceral power that made them great band’s through the live releases they put out.  It doesn’t matter if the tracks were almost re-recorded track by track after the show, what matters is that I can put on ‘Live & Dangerous’ and hear exactly what I heard at Portsmouth Guildhall in 1978.  I can tell you how amazing a Rory Gallagher show was, but without ‘Irish Tour 74’ you wouldn’t get at half the emotion – and yes, those Rockpalast shows are great, but immortality is in the vinyl grooves my friend.  In this age of silver discs with ‘perfect’ sound reproduction, is there still a place for rough ‘n’ ready live Rock?  Step up to the mark King King and their first ever live offering.

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Fifty years on from the famous ‘Beano’ album featuring Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers Producer Mike Vernon still gets a tingle of excitement when he hears someone bringing something special to the Blues.  In 2010 a young Brit named Oli Brown excited Vernon enough to lure him out of retirement – in 2016 another young Brit has caught the great man’s attention.  Laurence Jones is the young man in question and ‘Take Me High’ could almost have been what Jones said to lure Vernon back into the studio.    the result is one of the best guitar sounds I’ve heard on a disc for years and very possibly the start of something very big indeed.

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