Blues Jamboree CD/Vinyl

Blues Jamboree
Grab A Root An’ Growl
Straight Shooter – SHOT 012

Blues Jamboree is a Scandinavian Blues Revue featuring some of the cream of the Scandinavian blues scene recorded live in a basement liquor store in Copenhagan. Not quite a Mississippi juke joint but the music is certainly worthy of anything recorded or played in one.

The line-up includes harmonica virtuoso Peter Nande and his recording partner guitarist Tim Lothar, with our own Paul Banks, Troels Jensen (piano), HP Lange, Rune Myhren and Svante Sjőblom playing some classic, mainly traditional, blues interspersed with a few fine originals.

The musicianship is top notch as the band open with Gus Cannon’s ‘Walk Right In’ which captures the purity and simplicity of jugband music replete with Jazz Gillum styled harp, piano and washtub bass with all of the group vocalising. Charley Jordan’s ‘Keep It Clean’ maintains that jugband feel with it’s infectious guitar and gin house piano – whilst ‘You’ve Got To Move’ has spiritual overtones with it’s haunting slide, mandolin, piano and wistful vocals.

Nande’s title track is a Harmanesque blues replete with lowdown greasy harp, rolling piano and “growled” vocals – Estes’ ‘Divin’ Duck Blues’ is delivered as a modern soulful blues replete with quirky mandolin and Chi-Town harp – Tampa red’s ‘You Can’t Get that stuff No More’ displays shades of Rice Miller, with Sonny and Brownie styled vocals, hot blues guitar and rocking piano – whilst Dylan’s ‘Buckets Of Rain’ is given a moody, jugband styled workout.

You’ll wish you had been there!
Mick Rainsford