Artist: Bourgeois Gypsies
Title: Blue Morning
Genre: Folk-Blues-Americana
Label: Kaiam Records
Website
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Arnold Mitchem and Kaisa MacDonald call themselves the Bourgeois Gypsies. They have some major chemistry going on with their CD Blue Morning. This talented couple plays and sings their hearts out on this exceptional recording.
MacDonald
sings and plays acoustic guitar and Mitchem does the same, plays
electric guitar, and doubles as the bass player. Talent is abundant
with this duo and they have some friends that fill in the gaps to flesh
out their sound as well on different tracks. John Humphrey (bass),
Tommy Fillman (drums), Sunnygirl Yoko Takeda (harmonica), and Paul
Trudeau (Wurlitzer) provide more than adequate skills to make this
album’s sound complete.
What you get with Bourgeois Gypsies is a very appealing and infectious blend of music consisting of folk, blues, and Americana.
The lead off track “Gypsy Girl” is great tune filled with hook laden
acoustic guitar lines and perfectly balanced vocals from the duo. You
hear it one time, and then you cannot get it out of your head, your
hooked! Mitchem and MacDonald, while different, are equally matched in
tone and delivery so it works out very well as they compliment each
other very nicely. The title track is one of the better compositions,
and because of the title, it makes sense that its one of the tracks
where the blues influences come in.
Bourgeois
Gypsies are a real down to earth pair that sounds as if they approach
each song as a separate story bringing each character they are
portraying to life. When you think about it, musicians and vocalist are
very much like actors and it becomes clear when you look at the whole
picture listening to music like this. The music indeed sounds earthy
and grounded and so does the vocals, it is just a real pleasant listen
with each song. From the listener’s point of view, I heard 10 tracks
that I did not mind hearing more than once, which is a good thing and
indeed a compliment coming from my side of the desk, or speakers I
should say. This is all good stuff well worth checking out if you enjoy
shots of energy and people that have a little sunshine and some smiles
in their music and lyrics.
April 25, 2006
© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
