onurblues: Flyin' Saucers - Blues Attack! (1998) / Flyin' Saucers Gumbo Special

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Nothin'... but with a French touch
Their first album and the latest one. Almost 25 years between them during which they definitely turned towards Louisiana music and adapted their name accordingly.

Flyin' Saucers - Blues Attack! (1998)
This “Blues Attack!” smells the sticky smoky atmosphere of the Mississippi country juke-joints or down-home blues bars of Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans or… Bordeaux.

For their first album, the band neglected the studios and preferred the energetic spontaneity of a live recording (on a two-track analog recorder) in their den, the legendary Cricketeers blues bar in their home city of Bordeaux.

Benoit Blue Boy (right) and Lazy Lester

With the help of Benoit Blue Boy, pioneer and now godfather of French blues, The Cricketeers became the epicenter of the development of a unique rich blues scene in Bordeaux that saw the budding of a good number of now famous French blues combos. Among them, the Flyin' Saucers, formed in 1997.

Fabio Izquierdo, the boss

They had the enthusiasm, the energy, the self-confidence of already skilled musicians and an infectious good mood. Fabio Izquierdo, the heart, founder and leader of the band, is a brother of Bob Corritore, and Anthony Stelmaszack, a younger cousin of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Magic Sam.
“Blues, swing, rock'n'roll & Tex Mex music gumbo special”, announces the cover. At the time, they were an almost pure blues band. Louisiana music came later.

The men
In 1998, the Flyin' Saucers were a five-piece band.

Anthony Stelmaszack

→ Fred Benelhouari (lead vocals, percussion) : a smooth crooner voice with a delicious French accent when he sings in English, which is the case on eleven of the thirteen tracks. He is not a bad singer as such, but not really born to sing the blues.

→ Fabio Izquierdo (harmonica, rubboard) : the boss, omnipresent (maybe a bit too much…) on harmonica with a rugged sound really reminding Corritore. His harp replaces a missing keyboard and this explains his over-presence.

→ Anthony Stelmaszack (guitar) : quite an appealing player, sometimes a bit hesitant but full of good ideas.

→ Patrice Feugas (bass)  & Christophe Schelstraete (drums) : the pair provides a flawless solid beat.

The tracks
The author(s) is/are mentioned for each title.

Fred Benelhouari

→ “Come On Everybody” (John Whitehill) : a swinging rock'n'roll that catches your ear with breathless harmonica and fine jazzy guitar.

→ “Too Right To Run” (James Harman) : outstanding track. The groove, the energy, the raw sound of Izquierdo's harmonica, Stelmaszack's coarse guitar sound, and pounding drumming by Schelstraete.

→ “Look What You've Done” (Magic Sam) : a title from the great Chicago blues innovator, father of the West Side style, the opportunity for Stelmaszack to show his guitar skills, and always Izquierdo's harmonica.

Christophe Schelstraete

→ “C'est La Même Chose” : home made song in French with humorous lyrics a la Boris Vian over a rock beat and sung with an Eddy Mitchell touch by Benelhouari who sounds more at ease than in English.

→ “Georgia Swing” (unknown) : as much a rock as a powerful blues. Energetic drumming, whirling harmonica, even Benelhouari sounds more excited than usual.

→ “Lendemain Difficile” : home made, a nice slow hangover lament, in French, mixing blues with hints of country and New Orleans Fats Domino style, though there's no piano.

Patrice Feugas (behind the harmonicist)

The next three titles form certainly the most exciting segment of the album.

→ “Backwater Blues” (Bessie Smith) : intense and long (10 minutes) homage to the queen mother of blues sung with a rugged voice by guest Mig Toquereau, with excellent but a bit invasive harmonica and fine guitar from Stelmaszack as usual.

→ “Red Top” (Gene Ammons) : a red-hot red top ! A too short swing number with exciting duel between Izquierdo and Stelmaszack whose jazzy guitar gets an inspired Duke Robillard touch (he even “stole” one phrase that can be heard in one of his two “Conversations in Swing Guitar” with Herb Ellis).

→ “Shake Your Hips” (James Moore) : “THE” spellbinding boogie with an obvious Hill Country twist ! Imaginative repetitive riffs from the harmonica, the guitar and the bass. In the last minute and a half, the band explodes with a blazing growing intensity when the roaring bass comes up front. Even Benelhouari starts to sound more like a blues shouter, which he is clearly not. Almost worth Rory Gallagher's “Ghost Blues” (on his album “Fresh Evidence”, 1990). You ask for more !

→ “'Till It Hurts” (Lee Rocker) : a blues starting with a B.B. King feel, turning in a romantic soul melodic slow led by a smooth guitar and crooned by Benelhouari.

→ “Fun & Laughter” (M. Gonzalez-R. Guaderrama) : a loud and muscular rock able to wake up the peaceful residents of a graveyard. Certainly the kind of number more enjoyable live than on disc.

→ “Cumbia Del Sol” (Hector Quintero) : a rejoicing spicy mix of Tex-Mex and Cuban salsa with exotic percussion, sung in Spanish. A welcome escape in a different atmosphere.

→ “One More Mile” (James Cotton) : the funky track of the album, with a New Orleans feel and a stirring bass solo from Feugas, even plugged to the wah-wah pedal at one moment.

→ Not on the tracklist, a little bonus concludes the show : a short improvised tune on kazoo just for fun...

This album has both the qualities and defaults of a debut opus. The latter concerns the vocals of Benelhouari (already mentioned), and most of all the lack of a keyboard which obliges Izquierdo to be systematically too invasive to fill the space. Bothering. Too much harmonica kills the harmonica. Fortunately the qualities overshadow the defaults, and the result is undoubtedly pleasant. ■

Flyin' Saucers Gumbo Special - Nothin' But (2019)
In 2010 their album “Crawfish Groove” came out under the new name of the band, Flyin’ Saucers Gumbo Special, a clear indication of their new musical orientation. 

The defaults of the first album have been amended. Izquierdo and Cédric Le Goff share the lead vocals according to the type of music played : Izquierdo is more at ease on Zydeco and rock'n'roll oriented numbers, and Le Goff, on New Orleans R'n'B and funky titles.

A precious recruit this Le Goff : his keyboard, coupled with the apparition on an accordion in the hands of Izquierdo, brings a welcome balanced coherence to the band's sound, richer, more diversified, in other words much better...

Lucas Gautier

The men
→ Fabio Izquierdo (accordion, harmonica, rub-board, percussion, vocals) : since the band is clearly oriented towards music from Louisiana. the boss is now playing (nicely) more accordion than harmonica.
→ Lucas Gautier (guitar) : one of the happy surprises of the album. A very appealing instrumentalist as excellent on slide as on funky wah-wah. And he also wrote a few titles.

Cédric Le Goff

→ Cédric Le Goff (keyboards, vocals) : the other nice surprise, as talented on piano and organ. Writes too.
→ Jean-Charles Duchein (bass) & Stéphane Stanger (drums, percussion) : a steady and powerful rhythm section for a rather rocking and dancing repertoire.
→ Guests : Mathieu Tarot (trumpet) and Jean-Baptiste Tarot (saxes) bring a deep New Orleans R'n'B flavor to many titles. The French blues godfather Benoit Blue Boy drops in for a visit with his harmonica on the first track.

Benoit Blue Boy & Izquierdo

The tracks
→ “Zydeco Train” (Izquierdo-FSGS) : guess what style ! And a good one too, introduced by the whistling of one of these slow and monstrously long American freight trains. First and winning interventions of Le Goff on organ and Gautier on guitar. An exciting and dancing way to start

→ “Mister Bartender” (Le Goff) : super funk ! Art Neville must smile from where he's resting peacefully. One of the most outstanding tracks of the lot.

→ “Louisiana Girl” (Gautier) : a baaad swamp rock with nasty muddy slide ! Duchein and Stanger aren't joking on the beat.

Old-time moonshiners

→ “Nothin' But A Party” (Izquierdo-FSGS) : a laid-back bayou blues with accordion, piano and reverb guitar turning into a rolling swamp rock. Roll it down the line man !

→ “Moonshine” (Izquierdo-FSGS) : fast hot Zydeco rock and a galvanizing guitar solo for this moonshine which is not the one you think about at first.

→ “Keep On Hoping” (Le Goff) : a rich soul-funk R'n'B with piano, organ, horns, bubbling guitar riffs and solo, and harmonica. Dr John and the Neville Brothers are not far...

Stéphane Stanger

→ “Gonna Roll” (Izquierdo-FSGS) : gonna rock ! Great harmonica from Izquierdo.

→ “How Can I Try?” (Gautier-FSGS) : a jump in time to the 1950s with this Fats Domino-esque mid-tempo soul song enlightened by Gautier's fine guitar and vocals.

→ “Do What You're Supposed To Do” (Gautier-FSGS) : funky groove, churchy organ, exciting wah-wah guitar... What else do you need to get moving !

Jean-Charles Duchein

→ “Hey Tout Kelkun” (Izquierdo-FSGS) : accordion Zydeco from the bayou, even the traditional “Hey toi” and other “laisse bon temps rouler” are not missing. Le Goff's organ and Gautier's guitar fit nicely in.

→ “Angel At Home” (Le Goff) : retro soul ballad with a typical Nola tempo a la Dr John. Only weak point, the melody is a bit weak.

→ “High Blood Pressure” (Huey "Piano" Smith) : another 1950s Nola R'n'B from one of the iconic pianists of the Crescent City, with a slow rock'n'roll hint and rejoicing vocals by Le Goff.

→ “Sweet Sin” (Gautier) : a Cuban jazz-tinged rocking R'n'B to end up the album nicely with fine piano, jazzy guitar, tropical percussion and… a little Dr John twist again.

Triple A for this appealing trip to Louisiana with a friendly band. ■

Videos
All the following performances were located in France, except the first one in Spain, and one in Switzerland as indicated.

► With Paul Orta, Festival Internacional de Blues de Cerdanyola, Spain, 2002 :
→ #1 : https://youtu.be/vSe8Mkxf-v8
→ #2 : https://youtu.be/YEVy4k-lRKA
► Le Canon, Bordeaux, 2009 : https://youtu.be/MvSwATKr3UQ
► "Made with Love", Le Soubock, Royan, 2010 : https://youtu.be/VowEd83UGlw
► Blues Passions Festival, Cognac, 2010 :
→ “Fire on The Bayou” : https://youtu.be/DUJ6-FIm9Dc
→ https://youtu.be/H4C4LMWXqjU

FSGS wih Jimmy Burns...

► “I Sing the Blues” with Sugaray Rayford,  Sunset, Paris, 2011 : https://youtu.be/DIPsPD8Qfk0
► With Jimmy Burns, Geneva (Switzerland), 2012 :
→ “Stand By Me” : https://youtu.be/w14ezXTeh0M
→ https://youtu.be/g1uzvI6B7rQ / https://youtu.be/d6weKI4o10Y / https://youtu.be/vYQsrYKaKX0 / https://youtu.be/qMT7BROwQ9k / https://youtu.be/_jwwedTSzTQ / https://youtu.be/FnnBrDEaAtw

... and Sugaray Rayford

► Sugaray Rayford French Tour with the FSGS,  2012 :
→ “Baby, What You Want Me To Do” (Jimmy Reed), Le Buis  : https://youtu.be/scf9vLWVthA
→ Coutras : #1 : https://youtu.be/FxjQx5xuOTo - #2 : https://youtu.be/oLL7_FEGaVI - #3 : https://youtu.be/zpiAroq78yc - #4 : “Got My Mojo Working” : https://youtu.be/0xlUX4Mx3qY
→ Saint-Seurin-sur-L'isle : #1 : “I Sing the Blues : https://youtu.be/pyo_smRmeMA - #2 : "Blind Alley" : https://youtu.be/1ufNDtKvMB4 - #3 : “The Hunter” (Ike & Tina Turner) : https://youtu.be/PqhZB4RrB_U
→ Sainte-Eulalie : #1 : https://youtu.be/ZbIl3LR6e0E - #2 : “Fire on The Bayou” : https://youtu.be/wgGyyLABg9k - #3, without Sugaray : https://youtu.be/-w1-FrTu5jg
→ Bordeaux : https://youtu.be/9wWFMJvXlBM
→ “You upset me baby”, Sunset, Paris : https://youtu.be/a0hHQTegN_s

Let the good times roll... on the floor

► Jazz & Blues Festival, Léognan, 2013 :
→ https://youtu.be/fxLGJmDz8T4
→ https://youtu.be/giBWoFmJz8U
► “Boogie Thing”, 2013 : https://youtu.be/nzkguhDsvQY
► “Flip Flop & Fly”, Vache de Blues Festival, Villerupt, 2013 : https://youtu.be/LitxMLj80vQ
► "She's About A Mover", 2013 : https://youtu.be/TF12HbSLF5s
► Tremblay-en-France, 2014 :
→ “Made with love & New Orleans” : https://youtu.be/i5QCu_Oyqwc
→ “Don't look back” : https://youtu.be/LmizyotbKDQ
► Promo film, 2015 : https://youtu.be/8lsbJubMNjA
► “Tailgator groove”, New Morning, Paris, 2015 : https://youtu.be/ND6cUDRbDgE