BILLIE AND THE KIDS
''JUKEBOX DADDY''
MARCH 7 2014
50:01
1 - Scorched 2:43
2 - Your First Kiss 2:57
3 - Bumble Bee 2:25
4 - Jukebox Daddy 2:41
5 - Blueprint Of My Heart 2:50
6 - Maybe 2:58
7 - It's Wrong 3:05
8 - How Can You Leave A Man Like This 2:33
9 - I've Got A Feeling 2:59
10 - Lonely Days 3:30
11 - Come On And Fool Around With Me 3:11
12 - You're Gonna Be Sorry 3:12
13 - Your Love 4:25
14 - I Need You Tonight 2:38
15 - Tough Lover (Bonus Track) 3:03
16 - I'm Wise (Bonus Track) 2:28
17 - I Thought I Told You Not To Tell Them (Bonus Track) 2:13
REVIEW
By Andrew Smith
Rhythm Bomb Records may well have released the best R&B album of the year in this fourteen track (plus three bonus tracks) belter.
Billie and the Kids made waves at the Rhythm Riot a couple of years ago and this is their second release. Think the New Orleans sound from the 1950’s and you have an idea of what to expect. And indeed the opening track, a cover of Varetta Dillard’s ‘Scorched’ sets the tone with it’s scolding familiarity. It’s track two, ‘Your First Kiss’ that is the first of the original compositions by bassist Jurica Stelma. With seven musicians backing her and Billie’s (Ana Klabucar) powerful set of vocal pipes, the listener will immediately be put in mind of Atlantic Records circa 1950.
Consolidating their appreciation of their choice of cover material, LaVern Baker’s ‘Bumble Bee’ gets an outing with an excellent guitar solo offsetting the vocals. That sets you up for four consecutive original tunes, starting with the title track ‘Jukebox Daddy’, a cracking romp with a brilliant beat. ‘Blueprint of My Heart’ is slightly slower, and Billie’s voice is excellently pitched on this stroll sound. ‘Maybe’ sums up the New Orleans theme and could have come straight from the pen and piano of Fats Domino, and ‘It’s Wrong’ has more than a hint of Penniman about it, which is by no means a bad thing!
Another LaVern Baker corker from 1953 gets the treatment, this time it’s ‘How Can You Leave a Man Like This?’, followed by the suspicious lilt of Big Maybelle’s ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’. This cover of the 1954 beauty has the mistrustful, almost growling vocal delivery of the original, and is a solid cover. Slowing the tempo right down is ‘Lonely Days’, another Stelma penned Blues and Jazz soaked number that could have come straight out of a 1950’s smoke filled Louisiana bar.
The suggestively titled ‘Come and Fool Around With Me’ is an uplifting bounce along track with a glorious guitar and saxophone break, while ‘You’re Gonna Be Sorry’ tells the subject off in a Mambo shuffle style. At four and a half minutes long, ‘Your Love’ is the longest on the CD, and Billie’s vocal delivery is exquisite, set to piano and gentle brush played drums, with a well crafted sax break. Rounding off the self penned songs is ‘I Need You Tonight’ with it’s joyful cadence.
Listed as ‘bonus rockin’ tracks’ there are three familiar covers, the first of which is a mainstay of many a female led band, Etta James’ ‘Tough Lover’. It’s easy to compare this favourably with the original and indeed Billie’s contemporaries. ‘I’m Wise’ is a cover of Eddie Bo’s original, better known maybe as ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’ by Little Richard which originally was released a month after Bo’s in 1956. And topping off is another telling off tune, this time Marie Knight’s ‘I Thought I Told You Not To Tell Her’.
This collection of songs is simply sublime, packaged with a booklet of atmospheric photgraphy. If you put it on the player and don’t read the credits, you’ll be astonished that some of the songs are recently composed and not obscurities from the vaults of Atlantic or Okeh for example.
A first class CD.
(taken from http://thebettajivereview.weebly.com/cd-reviews.html)
OFFICIAL SITE
''JUKEBOX DADDY''
MARCH 7 2014
50:01
1 - Scorched 2:43
2 - Your First Kiss 2:57
3 - Bumble Bee 2:25
4 - Jukebox Daddy 2:41
5 - Blueprint Of My Heart 2:50
6 - Maybe 2:58
7 - It's Wrong 3:05
8 - How Can You Leave A Man Like This 2:33
9 - I've Got A Feeling 2:59
10 - Lonely Days 3:30
11 - Come On And Fool Around With Me 3:11
12 - You're Gonna Be Sorry 3:12
13 - Your Love 4:25
14 - I Need You Tonight 2:38
15 - Tough Lover (Bonus Track) 3:03
16 - I'm Wise (Bonus Track) 2:28
17 - I Thought I Told You Not To Tell Them (Bonus Track) 2:13
REVIEW
By Andrew Smith
Rhythm Bomb Records may well have released the best R&B album of the year in this fourteen track (plus three bonus tracks) belter.
Billie and the Kids made waves at the Rhythm Riot a couple of years ago and this is their second release. Think the New Orleans sound from the 1950’s and you have an idea of what to expect. And indeed the opening track, a cover of Varetta Dillard’s ‘Scorched’ sets the tone with it’s scolding familiarity. It’s track two, ‘Your First Kiss’ that is the first of the original compositions by bassist Jurica Stelma. With seven musicians backing her and Billie’s (Ana Klabucar) powerful set of vocal pipes, the listener will immediately be put in mind of Atlantic Records circa 1950.
Consolidating their appreciation of their choice of cover material, LaVern Baker’s ‘Bumble Bee’ gets an outing with an excellent guitar solo offsetting the vocals. That sets you up for four consecutive original tunes, starting with the title track ‘Jukebox Daddy’, a cracking romp with a brilliant beat. ‘Blueprint of My Heart’ is slightly slower, and Billie’s voice is excellently pitched on this stroll sound. ‘Maybe’ sums up the New Orleans theme and could have come straight from the pen and piano of Fats Domino, and ‘It’s Wrong’ has more than a hint of Penniman about it, which is by no means a bad thing!
Another LaVern Baker corker from 1953 gets the treatment, this time it’s ‘How Can You Leave a Man Like This?’, followed by the suspicious lilt of Big Maybelle’s ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’. This cover of the 1954 beauty has the mistrustful, almost growling vocal delivery of the original, and is a solid cover. Slowing the tempo right down is ‘Lonely Days’, another Stelma penned Blues and Jazz soaked number that could have come straight out of a 1950’s smoke filled Louisiana bar.
The suggestively titled ‘Come and Fool Around With Me’ is an uplifting bounce along track with a glorious guitar and saxophone break, while ‘You’re Gonna Be Sorry’ tells the subject off in a Mambo shuffle style. At four and a half minutes long, ‘Your Love’ is the longest on the CD, and Billie’s vocal delivery is exquisite, set to piano and gentle brush played drums, with a well crafted sax break. Rounding off the self penned songs is ‘I Need You Tonight’ with it’s joyful cadence.
Listed as ‘bonus rockin’ tracks’ there are three familiar covers, the first of which is a mainstay of many a female led band, Etta James’ ‘Tough Lover’. It’s easy to compare this favourably with the original and indeed Billie’s contemporaries. ‘I’m Wise’ is a cover of Eddie Bo’s original, better known maybe as ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’ by Little Richard which originally was released a month after Bo’s in 1956. And topping off is another telling off tune, this time Marie Knight’s ‘I Thought I Told You Not To Tell Her’.
This collection of songs is simply sublime, packaged with a booklet of atmospheric photgraphy. If you put it on the player and don’t read the credits, you’ll be astonished that some of the songs are recently composed and not obscurities from the vaults of Atlantic or Okeh for example.
A first class CD.
(taken from http://thebettajivereview.weebly.com/cd-reviews.html)
OFFICIAL SITE
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