SirJo Cocchi & Balta Bordoy - Heads Up!

Artiest/Band:SirJo Cocchi & Balta Bordoy Album: Heads Up! Release 21.06.2024 Label: Continental Record Services Heads Up! is a great title for this album, because this collection of songs and performances is truly something the WHOLE Blues world should be paying attention to I hear something here, I feel something here, something that I haven’t felt since I first discovered the REAL blues. There are a lot of really good blues musicians in Europe, there is no doubt about that.

For half my life, I lived there myself, and that is where I discovered the Blues, and started learning about it, and how to play it. But after a while, I started sensing that there was something MORE, that as much as I loved this music, and had many like-minded friends who did… I was missing part of the picture.

That is why I have been living in the USA since I was 21 years old, and I was right.
There WAS something missing, and the more I lived and learned and played in the USA, the more I realized that I understood very little about this music when I was living in my home country. And the more I became a part of the Blues world in its land of origin, the harder it was for me to enjoy European blues artists.

They could PLAY, but they couldn’t sing. Or they could sing, but they couldn’t understand the context of what they were singing about. They could mimic and learn, but they couldn’t really do their win thing with the blues, in a way that convinced me.

Well, now I AM convinced. Everything I just said, SirJo & Balta’s new album is something different than that. THIS music rings true. These guys have got it, they are doing everything “right” but also doing it in their own way.

The guitar playing, the ensemble playing, and most of all the incredible VOCALS, it all knocks me out! I can hear their influences, but I don’t feel like I’m listening to somebody copying Otis Rush for instance. I feel like I am listening to a real blues original. Songs like “Transmutation Blues” takes all their influences and stretches them in new and creative directions, and the result is masterful. I am getting the same feelings and vibes form when I first discovered the blues.

I think SirJo & Balta truly represent a milestone in European blues, for they are not just great Blues MUSICIANS, they are great Blues ARTISTS.

Tracks:
01. Love and Pain Blues 03:48
02. Transmutation Blues 05:13
03. Heads Up 03:52
04. Good Smelling Woman 04:08
05. Losing Hand 06:12
06. Blues for the End of the World 04:08
07. Far Away From Home 03:25
08. Midnight Hour Blues 05:44
09. Tell Me 04:39
10. Strangely Happy Blues 05:07

Website: https://sirjobaltablues.com/

Continental Record ServicesNetherlands