Cirkus Prütz – White Jazz – Black Magic (CD)

This combo features quite a few years of Swedish music history. Prütz himself, is bass player Jerry Prütz, formerly of the bluesy hard rock band W.E.T (not the recent melodic rockers) who released a bunch of singles and albums between 1987-2002. Guitarist Franco Santunione has played with bands like Glory Bells, Glory Bell’s Band and Electric Boys, while singer/guitarist is most known for his guitar magic in The Quill. He turns out to be a great singer as well, with a cool low down and half-dirty blues voice. The drums are handled by Per Kohlus. Cirkus Prütz plays classic bluesy hard boogie rock with a southern rock swagger. Shotgun Wedding Blues takes us to southern shuffle country, while Aim To Please has a classic Steve Ray Vaughan swagger to it. The Gary Mooreish bluesy “Blues For Fallen Heroes” is a very nice tribute to two of the band’s former guitarists, who sadly passed away: Mikael Fässberg and Robert “Strängen” Dahlquist. “Hell To Pay” is a kick-ass groovy, riff rocker that really hits home! One of my favorite tracks! “Friends” and “Hats And Strats”, both remind me a bit of early Molly Hatchet and Christian actually has a bit of Danny Joe Brown in his voice, come to think of it. A really nice footstompin’ classic southern style blues rock album!

Janne Stark

Label: Metalville

Year: 2019

Country: Sweden

Sakis Dovolis Trio – Cross The Line (CD)

Man, it seems the blues has really hit Greece! They have produced the fantastic talent of Stavros Papadopolous (who has also co-produced this album), with his Universal Hippies, Freerock Saints and Super Vintage. Here, his fellow country man Sakis proves he too can deliver the goods! It does say “trio”, so of course he’s got two fellows taking care of the bass (Fotis Dovolis) and drums (Nick Kalivas), and they do it with power, groove and assertiveness indeed! The album kicks off with the riff rockin’ “All Over You” in same same territory as Robin Trower, Craig Erickson, Philip Sayce. Lance Lopez and with a touch of Stevie Ray in his leads. Sakis is a phenomenal guitarist and also a great singer! If someone had played it to me without saying the band name, I would have said 100 % American. Well, Sakis also knows how to deliver crunchy and groovy riffs. “Everything” is as groovy as they come with Sakis letting that Strat rip the air a new one! Damn, this guy does rip!! He also manages to keep the momentum up delivering one number after another. There’s some heavy, detuned riffing going on in the title track giving it a different vibe, some more mellow, funky and almost jazzy playing in “Show Me Your Love” and he does it a really cool version of ZZ Top’s “Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings”. The album closes with Sakis’ tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a fine one it is. A cool, bluesy ballad with outstanding guitar playing. A killer of an album, indeed!

Janne Stark

Year: 2018

Label: Grooveyard Records

Country: Greece

Link: www.sakisdovolis.com

Pontus Snibb’s Wreck Of Blues – Too Late To Die Young (CD)

First of all, I’m a huge fan of Pontus’ raspy blues infused vocals and his fiery guitar work, also heard in AC/CD style hard rockers Bonafide. Wreck of Blues is however a totally different creature. The band features Pontus on guitar and vocals, his father Håkan Nyberg on drums and bass player Kalle Johansson. The music is rootsy, energy loaded electric blues. Even though I love Bonafide, I must say Pontus’ voice really hits home 100 % in this musical environment. The album is a cool meeting between Stevie Ray Vaughn/Robin Trower style guitar based heavy blues and classic rhythm ‘n blues. This trio sure has the power of groove flowing through their veins. Just check out tracks like “You Had A Friend” and “Light Me Up” with Håkan shuffling away like steady old tractor, with Kalle providing the low frequency steering wheel and Pontus harvesting the sweet tonal fruits. I really love the earthy, analogue mix which sometimes, like in “Brothers And Friends” sounds like it was recorded live there and then. Having had the pleasure of seeing the band live, I can say this is not far away from what they do sound like on stage. I also have to say, with the blues sometimes having the problem of repeating itself over and over, Pontus has managed to put some nice twists to the old well-oiled blues machine. Truly a kick-ass album!

Janne Stark

Label: Off Yer Rocka

Year: 2018

Country: Sweden