Magic Fingers & The Wizards Of Blues – Hands On The Blues

01-04-2022

Producer, songwriter and bassist Ralf 'Magic Fingers' Schusdiazza had wanted to make this album for a while but it never happened. Now in this lockdown time it was possible to realize this with Kai Strauss, Alex Lex, Nico Dreier (all also Kai Strauss Band) and the Englishman Roger C. Wade who lives in Germany. With the support of Neu Start Kultur of the German government for culture and media. In two days, in September 2021, thirteen timeless blues songs were recorded by Matthias Donner in Tonstudio Donner in Remscheid. The album was produced by Ralf Schusdziarra. The album, in a nice sturdy gatefold sleeve, contains six self-written songs and seven not too well-known covers, such as Empty Arms by Stephen Ray Vaughan. The album opens with the wonderful shuffle 'Empty Arms' with a nice guitar intro by Kai Strauss after which his vocals join in. Beautiful piano by Nico Dreier, deep bass by Ralf Schusdziarra and the fine beat by Alex lex. A top played blues. 'You Don't Have To Go' starts with Ralf's jew's harp who does the vocals here, a wonderful groove is the basis of this song and a leading role for the piano. Roger does the vocals and harp on 'Help Me' and Kai comes in with clear pointed guitar playing. Rhythm section is top notch. Beautiful song and perfectly balanced. Uptempo and funky is the instrumental 'Cleo's Mood' with the Jew's harp dominating and Nico on the organ. Walter Jacobs' New Orleans style shuffle is 'Just Your Fool'. Then follows the groovy 'Ain't No Going Back' with blissful rhythms and beautifully sung by Roger. Top number! The first and beautifully played slow blues 'Why Do Everything Happen To Me' with subdued guitar playing and vocals by Kai follows. Nice piano solo too. The boogie 'Whiskey Drinking Woman' written by Roger is nice and uptempo. 'Who's Been Talking' is played in wonderful Peter Green style, like Henrik Freischlader plays 'I Loved Another Woman' for example. Shuffle and louder again in 'Airline Blues'. Rock and roll blues and swing characterize the smooth 'Stay At Home'. The quiet Mississippi blues 'One August Day' is sung by Roger, mouth harp, plucked guitar and soft drums. In the swinging closing track 'The Final Moaning' of this wonderful blues album, the organ plays the leading role. With "Hands On The Blues" Magic Fingers & The Wizards Of Blues have made a wonderful blues album. These top musicians know where Abraham gets the 'real' blues mustard from ! Mandatory purchase for the blues lover. Excellent, cool and grooving modern blues album. Ralf 'Magic Fingers' Schusdziarra has made a dream come true: the bassist invited Kai Strauss - guitar, vocals; Roger C. Wade - harmonica, vocals; Nico Dreier - piano, organ, and drummer Alex Lott to a studio in Remscheid, Germany, to record a mélange of hand-picked cover versions and original tunes. The result is an album that is just plain fun and fits perfectly into the line of US-American role models like Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters, Rick Estrin & The Nitecats, Anson Funderburgh or Dave Specter. Superbly recorded and mixed. Digipak. Highly recommended ! Ralf 'Magic Fingers' Schusdziarra from Solingen, Germany is a trained bass player, who really masters all styles of the profession. He teaches, does band coaching, harmony, music theory and accompanies choirs to highlight just a few aspects of his musical activities. The pandemic caused all his concerts to be canceled for a longer period of time. For years he toyed with the idea of recording a blues CD. Ralf had long envisioned which musicians he would like to record this project with. Singer, guitarist Kai Strauss, singer, harmonica player Roger C. Wade, percussionist Alex Lex and keyboardist Nico Dreier were the intended musicians for this project and all were prepared to spend two days in September 2021 with Ralf de Tonstudio Donner from Matthias Donner in Remscheid, Germany. to dive in. And the result is impressive, what a wonderful blues album this has become. You can hear that immediately with the first notes that Kai Strauss takes from his guitar on 'Empty Arms' by Stevie Ray Vaughan, which he puts completely to his own hand. And when Nico Dreier briefly solos, a wonderful authentic blues atmosphere is created. The rhythm section is at home like they've never done anything else. On Jimmy Reed's "You Don't Have To Go," Roger C. Wade takes over from Kai, blowing a powerful party harmonica. Nico switches on the well-known 'Help Me' (Rice 'Sonny Boy Williamson' Miller) from piano to organ and lays down a wonderful floor, over which Roger C. Wade plays mighty acoustic harmonica parts. Every soloist indulges in the groovy instrumental 'Cleo's Mood' (Willie James Wood, Harvey Faqua) before playing a swinging version of 'Just Your Fool' by Marion Walter Jacobs with conviction. But anyone who thinks there are only covers on this disc will be disappointed. Roger C. Wade delivers the groovy sounding 'Ain't No Going Back' and the spicy shuffle 'Whiskey Drinking Woman' and after the Chester 'Howlin Wolf' Burnett's 'Who's Been Talking' it's time for some tracks (Airline Blues , Stay At Home and One August Day) of which Ralf Schusdziarra is the songwiter or co-songwiter and which connect seamlessly to the preceding material. Such as the slide-infused shuffle 'Airline Blues' and the rocker 'Stay At Home'. The kept small 'One August Day' is about the blues musician Jens 'Brother Snakeoil' Turowski, who died on August 18, 2020, from whom Ralf has learned a lot. With the swing shuffle 'The Final Moaning' by Ralf we already arrive at the end of this excellent CD, on which Kai and Roger share the vocals in a sublime way.

01 Empty Arms

02You Don't Have To Go

03 Help Me

04 Cleo's Mood

05 Just Your Fool

06 Ain't Going Back

07 Why Do Everything Happen To Me

08 Whiskey Drinking Woman

09 Who's Been Talking

10 Airline Blues

11 Stay At Home

12 One August Day