Blues Matters
April/May 2007

By Norman Darwen

Danish guitarist Dan plays with wonderful tone and admirable restraint, very much in the vein of his obvious hero T-Bone Walker. There are three of Mr. Walkers`s numbers out of the ten on the live CD (recorded at Jazzhus Dexter in Odense, Denmark), and Dan`s accompanying musicians – three horns, organ and piano over the mighty fine rhythm section – seem to be just as keen, knowledgeable and capable as the leader.

There are also forays into vintage rock and roll territory, some smouldering soul-Blues a la mid-60s Bobby Bland, a little funky Blues in the vein of late-70s BB. King with The Crusaders, and a detour to `50s New Orleans.

There is also a DVD, which supplies a visual counterpart to several of the performances from the CD, but also includes an eight minutes long `Blues Man`, performed very much as Buddy Goy might have played it in a Chicago Blues club four decades or so ago when his own T-Bone influence was still apparent.

Extras on the DVD include two numbers from a festival in 2000, a couple of studio recordings filmed in black and white and musically much more experimental, a peek backstage which might be revealing if I could speak Danish, and a photo gallery.

Dan is, surprisingly perhaps, also a fine singer with just a trace of an accent in places. If you enjoy European Blues, this is most certainly one to get…and although I haven`t yet tried out Dan`s recipe for gumbo, the lovely packaging seems to suggest he is something of a dab hand in the kitchen too!

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More about this great UK blues magazine:

Blues Matters! is proud to announce (officially – at last!) that The Blues Foundation, in Memphis, has awarded us the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award for 2007, in the Print Media category.

This is only the second time a British publication has received the prestigious award, and the first time for a Welsh production. Previous recipients have included major-titles, such as Rolling Stone.

The magazine has seen fairly dramatic changes to every facet of its production over recent years (right through from the magazine's editorial and design, to it's distribution and promotion) and whilst this award serves as welcome acknowledgment of the magazine's continuing progress and improvement, it's also recognition of the hard-work and time given by every single contributor; true-fans who work hard to promote the music they love!

Please help spread the word of this significant achievement, for an independently-produced/fans-magazine.