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Extraordinary ! Exhilarating !
Treanor-Farrell, Farrell-Treanor ? Afrisippi, Afrissippi or Afrossippi ? Or maybe Missifrican or Missafrican ? What a headache ! In fact it doesn't matter, even if personally I would vote for the second proposition (Farell-Treanor) considering Farrell is doing all the singing, guitars and gitjo (1). On the other hand, Treanor has set up and produced the project, and brought the African sound with his khalam, diddley-bow and cane flute, both men being even on harmonica. So let it like it is . Concerning the Afrosippi Band, on this album it's been reduced to the sole rock solid rhythm section formed by Jodie Woodward on bass and the excellent Kyle Roberts on drums, congas and various percussion.
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Treanor on khalam
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Few country blues record ― this one is a hybrid kind, acoustic in spirit if not in form, Farrell playing both acoustic and electric guitar and Woodward, electric bass ― are as rocking as this extraordinary album searching to show the links between Mississippi country blues and its African roots. In reality, most of the songs are Chicago blues revisited in a way to bring up their Mississippi blues origins, flavored with ancient African instruments, but still mainly Mississippi-rooted blues. Again all this doesn't matter because this album, marked by a particularly appealing sonic texture, is a totally exhilarating !The grand outstanding opening “Tumblin' Blues” starts with a soft West-African flavored intro before turning into an irresistible blow-your-head-off blues beat. The splendid “Just Keep Lovin' Her”, a Walter Jacobs' cover, rocks just the same, enhanced by the sound of the conga, rarely found in blues, and by Farrell's superb solo work on dobro guitar and appealing voice.
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Richard Ray Farrell on dobro guitar
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“3 O'clock In The Morning” has an exciting Latin rumba swing flavor with its tropical conga rhythm again and nice jazzy guitar from Farrell. Can't figure out how the organ-like sound heard in the background has been produced. Treanor with one of his African instruments ? Most likely...After rejuvenating the low-down rusty traditional “Rock Me”, delivering a hard rolling version of Jimmy Rogers' “You're The One” and a soulful cover of T-Bone Walker's “Blue Mood”, all featuring great slide guitar parts, Treanor and Farrell cooked up a two-song suite : “Mississippi Fred's Dream”, a jubilating tribute to Fred “I-do-not-play-no-rock'n'roll” McDowell, built on a daring challenge : the song starts like a North Mississippi Hills Country Fife & Drums band, continues with a chain gang beat a la “Willie and the Hand Jive” and evolves into a soft rap from guest Neil McIntyre; and “Mr. Burnside”, an homage to another legendary bluesman of the region, R.L. Burnside, a slow blues curiously not in a hard Hills Country style though it has a kind of hypnotic rhythm.
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Treanor on his diddley-bow
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The journey goes on further (down the road !) with two exciting rocking versions of “Sick And Tired”, a 1957 R'n'B song from New Orleans musician Chris Kenner, and of Hound Dog Taylor's “She's Gone”, both greatly sung by Farrell and enlightened by fine harmonica and slide guitar. Meanwhile the African touch has somewhat faded during the voyage...“Goin' Fishing”, played on the gitjo, closes the album in a peaceful rural way. One imagines that, once this last one in the box, to release the pressure of this two-day studio session, that's exactly what Treanor and Farrell did : they went fishing.
Treanor, who produced the album, is a unique musician devoted to traditional African instruments, and the only regret we can express is that the sound of his khalam, diddley-bow and cane flute are not more distinctly perceived throughout the album. This probably explains why, with his raw blues voice and splendid guitar technique and styles (acoustic, electric, finger picking, slide), Farrell is the one who really stands out.
Anyway, “Keepin' Good Folks Joyful”, they said ? They totally succeeded for sure ! ☺
(1) A gitjo is a hybrid half guitar-half banjo instrument : generally a banjo body with a guitar neck, equipped with 6 strings (instead of 4 or 5 for a banjo) but sounding much more like a banjo than a guitar.
Live videos... are better than long speeches
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any video of Treanor and Farrell together, if any exists...
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The Afrosippi band
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■ Dan Treanor & the Afrosippi Blues Band featuring the incredibly hot Erica Brown :→ Flynn's, 2013 IBC semi-finals, Memphis, TN :
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Erica Brown & Merrian Johnson
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→ Also feat. Merrian Johnson, Taste Of Colorado, Denver, CO, 2013 (full show) :→ Capitol Hill Peoples Fair, Denver, CO, 2014 :
■ Dan Treanor & Mark McQuery
■ Dan Treanor (various)
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African griot
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Treanor's khalam
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The Afrosippi band
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