Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Artists that can, and willingly do so, change the trajectory of their sound in one jaw dropping moment, are to be treasured, and whilst some will be confounded from the alteration of direction from the Progressive to the raw emotion that Blues conveys, in Doris Brendel & Lee Dunham’s brand new release, Big Blue Sky, the sense of open appreciation is as expansive as the sound of the handsome vocals, and the drama that such an unobstructed view can maintain, is to be heralded and understood for the ferocity that can come bursting out of nature’s panoramic landscape in one fleeting second.
The recent winner of the HRH Prog Angel Award 2024, brings together a collection of storming classic blues with her regular partner, Lee Dunham, and sends delicious chills down the spine of the avid and responsive listener, and with the added line up of Sam Brown, Sam Blue, and Sam White on Hammond, vocals, and drums respectively, the engaging, dramatic, and at times brutally honest tracks, combine to garner the sheer groove of Blues at its scintillating best.
In much the same way as Joe Bonamassa arguably resurrected the genre after the mainstream deserted it because of the lack of vibrancy, Doris Brendel kicks out in a similar vein, the talented songstress weaves melancholy and humour together in such a fashion that the album becomes utterly captivating; and as tracks such as I Should Have Known, Slow Wifi Weekend, In The Doghouse, Satin Row, Cold Coffee Blues, and the finale of What Has Happened To My Dog, the resolution of refusing to be tied to one particular genre is one that Ms. Brendel has achieved with determination and ferocity of spirit.
Big Blue Sky is a reminder, should we need it, that the Blues has undergone the biggest transformation of music in the last 25 years, no longer driven by forgotten legends and the myths of heroes, it has been reconquered by the outlook of a different generation, one willing to flex their muscles in all directions, one willing to bend to the wind as it shuffles on the clouds, the tempests, and the squalls of dogged resistance to which the genre’s old guard will surely, certainly dismiss.
A fantastic album, an observation of the stance one takes when refusing to be pigeonholed in one genre, and with the ability, the belief to know that you can achieve all things.
Doris Brendel & Lee Dunham release Big Blue Sky on April 21st via Sky-Rocket Records.
Ian D. Hall