Girls With Guitars "Samantha Fish/Cassie Taylor/Dani Wilde"

 

 

"Girls With Guitars" marks the 7th year of Ruf Records Blues Caravan Tour, a blues revue that has toured extensively throughout the UK, USA, and Continental Europe, with the main purpose of helping to introduce shining new stars on the blues horizon, to an international audience. Previous artists gracing the Tours stage have been Ana Popovic, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Coco Montoya, Shakura S'Aida, Deborah Coleman, Candye Kane, Sue Foley, Roxanne Potvin, Erja Lyytinen, Ian Parker, Aynsley Lister, and Oli Brown. This years Ruf Records Blues Caravan Tour features the dynamic talents, Samantha Fish, Cassie Taylor, and Dani Wilde.

 

Dani Wilde is no stranger to the Ruf Records Blues Caravan Tour, as she has been part the 2008 Tour with Candye Kane and Deborah Coleman. "Hailing from Brighton, England, Dani Wilde sings the blues with the old-school fervor of Aretha Franklin, but also takes a cue from contemporaries like Duffy and Joss Stone", and has already shared the stage with the likes of Candye Kane, Robben Ford, and the Legendary Koko Taylor. Dani recently released her second album called Shine.

 

At 21, Kansas City, Missouri native, Samantha Fish is already a much sought after artist on the music scene, recently performing and making believers of the audience at the 2010 Chicago Blues Festival.

 

Cassie Taylor's introduction to music was inevitable, after all her father is Bluesman Extraordinaire Otis Taylor. Cassie has appeared on eight of her fathers albums, which have received critical acclaim. She has also toured with him extensively throughout the world on many of his tours. "Her music ranges from heart-wrenching ballads to hard-driving blues. Like her father, Taylor doesn't shy from topical subject matter, nor shrink from breaching musical boundaries ."

 

Now together for the first time on "Girls With Guitars", this trio of talent shows us why they belong on this years edition of Ruf Records Blues Caravan Tour.

 

"Girls With Guitars" consists of 12 great tracks, with all but two being contributions from either Samantha Fish ("We Ain't Gonna Get Out Alive", "Come On Home", "Wait A Minute"), Cassie Taylor ("Satisfy My Soul, "Leaving Chicago", "Move On"),

or Dani Wilde ("Mr. Loving Man", "Reason To Stay", "Get Back", "Are You Ready"). The two Covers on "Girls With Guitars" are "Bitch" (Jagger/Richards) and one of my favorite Steve Miller Band tunes, the Paul Pena song "Jet Airliner". "Pena wrote and recorded the song in 1973 for his New Train album. However, due to conflicts between Pena and his label, New Train sat unreleased until 2000. Miller decided to record "Jet Airliner" for his band's Book of Dreams album in 1977 after hearing the unreleased album via Ben Sidran, who produced it, and who was also formerly in Miller's band." "Bitch" is the first song and "Jet Airliner" is the last song on this Album.

 

As the name of the album implies, Samantha, Cassie, and Dani, all play Guitars on this release, as well as, share with the lead and background vocals. Additional players on "Girls With Guitars" include the Drummer Jamie Little, one of the top session drummers in the UK, and as a special treat on two of the tracks, is Mike Zito ("We Ain't Gonna Get Out Alive" Slide Guitar and "Get Back" Guitar). Mike Zito was also the producer on of this Album.

 

"Girls With Guitars" comes across as a really nice mix of songs with a really nice mix of performances, with each of the girls getting a chance to shine with their amazing talents. Samantha are Cassie, are together on most of the tracks except for Dani Wilde's "Reason to Stay", which she does strictly as a solo, with only her Vocals and with her playing the Dobro. I found "Reason To Stay" to be quite a nice and unexpected surprise. Dani joins in with Samantha and Cassie on seven of the Albums tracks.  In addition to "Reason To Stay" another toned down, yet equally as entertaining track for me was Cassie Taylor's "Leaving Chicago".

 

When the 4 Non Blondes covered Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop", I was thoroughly amazed with how good of a job they did. I was equally impressed with the two Covers, "Bitch" and Jet Airliner" that were performed on this Album. Those Covers were the perfect opening and closing songs for this Album and I am very glad they chose them.

 

"Girls With Guitars" will certainly have no problem in creating buzz for future Ruf Records Blues Caravan Tour Albums. With each successive release, the concept and the execution seem to only get more popular, with their latest release being no exception.

 

Ruf Records has found a nice little niche to get up and coming talent to the masses, and I for one really appreciate their efforts.

 

"Girls With Guitars" is a fun Album to listen to and one I have no problem Highly Recommending.

 

Review by John Vermilyea (Blues Underground Network)

 

 

Additional Info

 

Tracklist

 

1. Bitch 3:38
2. Satisfy My Soul 2:43
3. Mr. Loving Man 3:34
4. We Ain't Gonna Get Out Alive 4:11
5. Reason To Stay 2:55
6. Get Back 3:21
7. Come On Home 4:46
8. Leaving Chicago 3:39
9. Wait A Minute 3:23
10. Move On 3:39
11. Are You Ready 4:23
12. Jet Airliner 4:31

 

Listen To Samples Here...

 

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