BluesArtStudio
January/February 2007

By Norman Darwen

Tone – one of the key words to describe this set.
Danish guitarist Dan has a wonderful tone, very much like T-Bone Walker, and he also has T-Bone’s aptitude for light and shade, and a strong sense of how to play one note just right rather than the scatter-gun approach of many others these days.

This is a CD and DVD, and musically it concentrates on the sound of T-Bone and his disciples, plus a foray into Rock and Roll ‘ with Whoo Wee’, a detour to New Orleans on ‘Jealous Woman’, a little bit of Crusaders & BB styled funk with ‘The Blues Is A Feeling’, and some of that classic Bobby Bland styled sixties soul-blues with Wayne Bennett on guitar courtesy of ‘Last Two Dollars’. Not bad, eh?

The DVD provides visual images to go with many of the tracks of the live album, but it also includes the eight minutes long ‘Blues Man’, which is very much in the fashion of Buddy Guy in a Chicago blues club four decades or so ago.

There are also some fine extras on the DVD including two numbers from the Langelandsfestival in 2000, a couple of short, less conventional tracks from studio sessions, some backstage footage and a photo gallery.

Yes, I am impressed with this. Besides being an excellent guitarist, Dan is a also fine singer – there is a trace of an accent but nothing to mar anyone’s enjoyment, and his band, including two saxmen and a trombonist, an organist plus a pianist over the in the pocket rhythm section, is outstanding.
Certainly a release to check out if you enjoy European blues.

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