Blues Revue Magazine

FIONA BOYES, MOOKIE BRILL & RICH DELGROSSO
Live From Bluesville
VizzTone Label Group

A recent press release from a record label announced that it has secured ‘airplay’ for one of its artists in Courtyard by Marriott hotel lobbies. The same artist’s CD, it added, is in rotation at Whole Foods checkout counters. Weird, you say? Well, that’s what record companies have to do now that Clear Channel and a few other mega-corps own most of the nations’ radio stations and can’t be bothered to introduce new artists. But at least there are two satellite services, XM and Sirius, that are good places to find new, interesting, and sometimes great music.

Live From Bluesville, featuring guitar/singer Fiona Boyes, standup bassist Mookie Brill, and blues mandolinist Rich DelGrosso, comes from a live session aired on XM’s Bluesville channel last year. The CD essentially consists of what the trio preformed in the studio, with a bit of polishing by production maven Mark ‘Kaz’ Kazanoff and his associates. It’s an 11-track treat from start to finish.

Boyes, Brill, and Blues Revue contributor DelGrosso aren’t a formal band. They first linked up at a Beale Street show during the Blues Music Awards a few months before this session, liked how they sounded together, and accepted an invitation to do the XM show with only a loose set list and no formal rehearsal time. Their material reflects a shared fondness for Sonny Boy Williamson 1, Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup, and JB Lenoir. Boyes and DelGrosso also contribute originals, and all three players take turns at the mike. Boyes is an effective singer and a fine instrumentalist, weaving acoustic guitar around DelGrosso’s mandolin. At times, especially on the Boyes original ‘Homegrown Sin’, the trio recalls early Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks minus the aren’t-we-clever factor. They turn Wolf’s ‘Smokestack Lightning’ into an airy acoustic romp and work up a bit of Fifties rockabilly fun on Crudup’s ‘My Baby Left Me’.

Live From Bluesville represents the sort of musical experience that doesn’t happen often enough these days, at least on commercial or even public radio, and it makes good cause for subscribing to satellite radio. It deserves to go into the heavy rotation at Whole Foods, and maybe Winn-Dixie, too.

          - Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue magazine Oct/Nov ‘08

Australian Guitar Magazine

FIONA BOYES, MOOKIE BRILL, RICH DELGROSSO - Live From Bluesville
Blue Empress / Only Blues Music (Aust)

Recorded live at Bluesville Studios in Washington, DC, as the name of this record would suggest, is a moment in time -  a moment created by three smooth-as-butter musicians for whom the blues is their lifeblood.   Australia's own Queen Of The Blues Fiona Boyes captains the ship, he subtle guitar and gruff vocal taking charge over the fantastic blues mandolin of Rich DelGrosso and upright bass and harmonca of Mookie Brill.

This is front porch, feet up, smoke tendrils drifting upwards on the warm evening breeze type of blues.  Sonny Boy Williamson's Early in the Morning gets this sublime treatment along with Chester Burnett's Smokestack Lightning, as do a smattering of Boyes and DelGrosso originals, in what is a record which taps at your feet, moves your fingers and just makes you feel cool.
          - Sam Fell  Australian Guitar Magazine Vol 69 '08