THE BLUES AGAINST YOUTH
LIVE @ CACIO & PERE, SIENA, Jan 5th
by Vinyl Or Live
One man bands are a very popular thing at the moment: they're fun to listen to and it's easy and cheap to play music and organise a tour when you're on your own. These are probably the first two reason that made a music category so linked to the past and the tradition, spread again in the 21st century. Someone who's not familiar with the genre may ask how can one man only give you the emotions that a group emanates. And in fact this can be a problem: there are so many one man bands around right now that not all of them are good. And if you're not good enough and you play by yourself the result is that...well, you just suck!
Listening to THE BLUES AGAINST YOUTH though makes you want to turn the question around: how can one musician only give you the whole repertoire of emotions of an entire band?
The answer is very simple: he's just very good!
His blues goes way back to the American tradition oscillating from country music to the 19th/beginning of 20th century folk blues, always leaving you doubtful whether you're hearing to one of his original songs or to a traditional oldie back from the wild west. In a period in which a lot of people put the blues label on their groups just to play a couple of very catchy and popular tracks from John Lee Hooker or B.B. King that everyone in the club can sing along, it's very hard to listen to such a great set of songs that show you how deep the research of this guy from Rome must have been.
Going more on the technical side, The Blues Against Youth is a very simple and we'll executed concept of one man band: just guitar and percussions (plus a kazoo in a couple songs), so perfectly mixed and harmonious he has nothing to envy to the greats of the genre such as Reverend Beat-Man or Bloodshot Bill. No loop stations, no noise machines, just the instruments and his voice. And if you close your eyes you find yourself leaving this little club in Siena and waking up in Mississippi in the 30s in the middle of Cohen Brothers' movie set 'O Brother, Where Art thou?'. The last special mention goes to "Good morning, Bad feeling", the great new single that gives the name to his new 10" EP, and that could with no doubt be the perfect soundtrack for a 50s John Wayne western.
