Released By : Absilone Records
Genre : Electric Blues
Link : http://www.awekblues.com
Lineup:
Bernard Sellam – Vocals, Guitar
Joel Ferron – Bass
Oliver Trebel – Drums
Stephane Bertolino – Harmonica
Tracklist:
01. She Turns Me On
02. I Appreciate
03. I Wanna Be Your Man
04. A Place Where I Can Hide
05. Gone Too Long
06. My Boss
07. It Hurts Me
08. Sound Check
09. Tell Me Now
10. I Don’t Mind
11. Give Me Time To Explain
12. Drive An Automatic
13. I’m Not In Love With You
14. Three Seconds
15. Papa Loonies Blues
16. Quit That Job
Today I’m very happy to be able to do something a little bit different for you guys. As much as we all love our Metal and our Hard Rock, most real music lovers would agree that neither of things would have likely ever come along if it wasn’t for Blues Music. Well, today I have the all-new release from one of the most lauded Blues bands across the whole of Europe…I’d like to introduce AWEK.
RICH AND FAMOUS is the band’s seventh full-length release over a sixteen year career and a pure joy to listen to from start to finish. The band go for a very traditional Chicago Blues sound on this record with a very clean guitar sound, a jazz-esque drum and bass combo, a smattering of Hammond Organ and some fantastically done Harmonica work. If artists like B.B KING, MUDDY WATERS and BO DIDDELY excite you then this album is almost a must-buy.
While the band itself is very, very solid and the vocals are quite good too, it’s no secret that the guitar work is the primary element in this type of music and well done to AWEK for really featuring some prefect Blues Axe work. There’s a couple of guest guitarist included on this album along with main slinger Bernard Sellam so it’s a little tricky to know who to applaude more, so let’s just say it’s a great effort all-round and call it a draw.
Highlights for me personally include I WANNA BE YOUR MAN, the cleverly titled instrumental track SOUND CHECK, I’M NOT IN LOVE WITH YOU and the swing-infused closing track QUIT THAT JOB. But really, at sixteen tracks there’s sure to be other’s that people wil like more than the ones I mentioned. I would have liked a couple of instances where the guitars grunt up a little for the lead-breaks, which is a trait that I have come to really enjoy from Australian Blues champions BINDI CIGARS…who actually hear plenty of similarities to on RICH AND FAMOUS.
I hope you guys have garnered enough interest from this review to at least check the band out. At the moment they are very well regarded from a European perspective, but have remained largely hidden to the rest of the world…Are they good enough to take on the American And English Blues bands of this modern generation, maybe not quite, but they would certainly give it a tilt…check ‘em out now!!
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 8/10
About Author
