Jeanne Carroll feat. Wolfgang Bernreuther - Bright Lights, Big City

The opener, title track ‘Bright Lights, Big City’, already shows the musical direction this recording is moving towards. In the best, authentic Jimmy Reed tradition, Wolfgang Bernreuther pushes through the classic with his acoustic guitar like a Mississippi steamboat. Tim Hickey from Chicago adds wonderfully jazzy blues licks with his semi-acoustic Gibson electric guitar. Bernreuther contributes an earthy slide guitar solo with his Höfner Club 50. Rudi Bayer on double bass is the man of the low notes, in the right place at the right time. It's wonderful how this skill purrs out of the stereo speakers. And then there's that voice. Its expressiveness and charisma, its depth and inimitable warmth, born of passionate emotion, go unfiltered into the listener's heart. ‘The blues heals the blues,’ Willie Dixon once said. How true! And how impressively audible on this record. ‘Good Morning Blues’ and the country-esque ‘Make Me My Pallet On The Floor’ are further highlights of the A-side. The four songs were recorded in 2000. 

The songs on side B were recorded in 1992. ‘I Had A Good Friend’ was composed by Jeanne Carroll. In this song, Carroll mourns the late blues pianist and singer Champion Jack Dupree. The melancholy and emotional intensity resonates in every single note. Bassist Klaus Schudy plays a beautiful bass solo and lets the melodies float away into distant soundscapes. Bernreuther lets wonderful blue notes bubble out of his Gibson Les Paul. Already in the early nineties, he laid a solid foundation for becoming one of the most recognised German blues guitarists today, almost 25 years later. This is followed by the Sonny Boy Williamson classic ‘Help Me’, which grooves so wonderfully that you can't sit still. The modulation range of Carroll's voice seems limitless. And then Carroll sings the ballad ‘I Wonder Why’, a composition by Bernreuther. The expressiveness of her vocals is enormous; it cannot be described, it must be heard. The B-side is rounded off by the two Carroll originals ‘Blues Breakdown’ and ‘Boogie Bound’. The two tracks leave nothing to be desired in terms of musical tension, even with minimal instrumentation. Or perhaps that's precisely why?