It’s funny how the values you ascribe to music change over time. Back in the 70’s when I was listening to Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher I never considered the word ‘integrity’ for example, even though it was really all over the music I was hearing and loving. Jump forward almost 40 years and here I am listening to Stevie Nimmo’s second release ‘Sky won’t fall’ and the ‘I’ word is a key element to my listening pleasure. Right from the opening crackle of amp feedback this disc says simply and clearly “I am a musician and I would be if I had to sleep on the street because no one bought my records”
There were some causes for concern when I first read Ben Poole’s description of his aims when making this, his second CD release: “We really wanted to get a balance between a live-sounding album and a well-produced, polished-sounding one. There’s a rawness and edginess, but also a subtlety and intimacy”. He says. It all sounds like the famed search by a tall, short man for a small, large house that is expensively furnished cheaply with brick walls made of stone.
‘Blue Sisters’ is this year’s title for the RUF Records Blues Caravan Tour that rolled into Bonn on Sunday. Following on from last years ‘Guitars with Guitars’ though perhaps ‘Maidens with Microphones’ would have been more in keeping?. Certainly there was Blues in the music, but none of these girls was playing it Bessie Smith style. Texan girl Tasha Taylor had the roots of her Soul star father Johnnie’s sound to draw on, Finland’s Ina Forsman made more than a passing nod to Reggae in her set and Layla Zoe’s closer was clearly tilted firmly in a Rock direction.