...this album probably will be in my personal top 5 of this year.
author: Steven Verhoeven, for Bobtje Blues.
One of the good things of reviewing cd’s is that, once in a while, you get a real masterpiece to review, a record you normally would never had heard… Such a record is ‘Love vs Blues’ by Paul Garner. Although he was born in England, he grew up in New Zealand, and he also returned to this island to record his first album. Why this cd is that good? First of all the style Garner plays in. One way or the other he succeeds in merging jazz with blues. Since the band that recorded the album with him plays a lot as a jazz-quartet, it’s not that odd of course, but Garner stays loyal to his blues-roots (just listen to the slide-guitar he plays on ‘Louisiana Blues’). Further you can not deny the strength of Paul as a musician, and I’m not talking about his sublime guitar-playing only. The man owns one of the most magnificent voices I heard on cd this year. In a number of songs he even made me think about Jamie Cullum, the young million-selling artist, who personally is responsible for the rebirth of jazz in the UK. The sum of his qualities as a musician and his exceptional talent for songwriting is incredibly high. The swinging ‘Tequila Amnesia’, the instigating ‘Another Day In New Orleans’ or the breathtaking ‘Goodnight My Love’, they are all highlights recorded between other highlights (twelve to be exact, all written by Garner himself). I think ‘Love vs Blues’ is a cd every music-lover should hear once if he or she can. I’m not pushing this record because, as I said earlier, the influences of jazz are more than present, but I can speak for myself and say that this album probably will be in my personal top 5 of this year.
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