When Rivers Meet - Aces Are High

Last week, in case you didn’t notice, When Rivers Meet’s third album Aces Are High gate-crashed the Top Ten of the UK Album Chart.  Now, in these digital, stream-orientated times, the charts aren’t really the kind of measure of success that they were in days of yore.  But still, it’s quite an achievement for a husband-and-wife duo whose modus operandi is entirely independent, and whose oeuvre is a spin on blues-rock.
Mind you, the two tracks that most immediately offer justification for their chartbusting status aren’t rockers at all.  ‘Golden’ and ‘By Your Side’ are both ballads, and they both hit the bullseye with a resounding whisper, as it were.  ‘Golden’ opens with quiet vocals from Aaron Bond, over

When Rivers Meet - In through the in door

Pic by Rob Blackham

simple acoustic strumming, the sound sweetening as Grace Bond arrives to harmonise on a melody that may not be entirely original, but is still a delight.  They have the courage to take it right down in order to muster light and shade, and though they stir some minimalist piano and drums into the mix, it’s the subtle vocal arrangement that hogs the limelight.  ‘By Your Side’ is a love song that begins with hushed, harmonised vocals and relies on its simple, lovely melody and sensitive, poetic lyrics to carry the day, framed by sparse backing and some twinkling guitar.  They really are good in this softer vein, as they've demonstrated before.
When they rock on this album though, it’s often with a heavier, less bluesy intent.  The opening ‘Infected’ sets forth with an angle-grinding riff and thudding mid-tempo drums, the latter courtesy of producer Adam Bowers, ahead of a shuddering pre-chorus, before Grace Bond serenades like a siren on the sweeter chorus.  And the following ‘See It All Before’ is all ceremonial chanting, doomy Sabbath-like chords, and a Bond femme vocal like something risen defiantly from the grave.
For my money they’re better when they lighten things up a bit.  ‘Play My Game’ may still be mid-tempo, but its staccato guitar is complemented by more fluid drums and bendy bass, and the moaned backing vocals give it a Yardbirds-esque retro feel.  But while Grace Bond demands “So kiss me, just kiss me” with conviction, it’s nothing compared to the full-on wailing and swooping she delivers at the climax.  ‘Perfect Stranger’ brings drama in different ways, with tense, choppy guitar chords and pattering drums for the verses, before slowing into some triumphal guitar chords as the prompt for Grace to illuminate the chorus.  Quirkier percussion livens up the third verse, and the chorus becomes even more magisterial as Bowers’ drums cut loose and Grace soars over the top with her tale of passionate connection.  ‘The Secret’ is as uptempo as they get, rattling along on the verses before hitting the brakes for the strident chorus, with squealing interjections of violin – or is it slide mandolin? – while a cool bridge shifts the focus and sets the scene for some more eerie slide slitherings, of a kind that also enlivens the familiar quiet verse/blazing chorus dynamics of ‘Trail To Avalon’.
A couple of tracks are less interesting though.  ‘Aces Are High’ itself feels a bit thin, more a sketch than a fully realised song, with its fuzzy guitar doodling over a funereal beat, and inconsequential verses.  The closing ‘5 Minutes To Midnight’ ushers in some stop-start grimy guitar over a whumping Glitter Band-like rhythm, but the verses aren’t as attention-grabbing as the crash-bang-wallop chorus, with its cri de coeur of “I’m alive!  And I’m ready!”.
By the by, I could do with Grace Bond’s vocals being higher in the mix at times.  If When Rivers Meet have a secret weapon, her voice is it, and it needs to cut through bright and clear.
Writing about When Rivers Meet’s second album Saving Grace, I reckoned their distinctive sound had given them an edge so far, but they’d need to add more strings to their bow in order to keep their material fresh.  Both those things remain true.  Adding some new colours to their palette is going to be important in the future.  But for now they can just enjoy the ride.
 
Aces Are High is out now, and can be ordered here.

When Rivers Meet - Flying Free Tour Live

Right down to its rather prosaic title, Flying Free Tour Live comes over like a rough and ready, off the cuff, unvarnished document of When Rivers Meet in performance.  Sonically it's pretty raw, sounding too ambient at times, a bit unbalanced at others.  It also feels very much “in the moment”, right down to Grace Bond having an unfortunately timed fit of the giggles during the sensitive acoustic number ‘Don’t Tell Me Goodbye’.  So for those who caught them on this tour it will doubtless be a great memento.  But how does it sound to someone, like me, who wasn’t able to make any of these shows?

Heads down, no nonsense, not quite mindless boogie

Pic by Paul May

Well, there’s no denying the visceral thrill of the opening ‘Did I Break The Law’, as the tension built by the churning guitar, the whomping, metronomic kick drum, and low-pitched verse, is met by a whooping crowd.  Then with a shout of “Here we go!” Grace Bond braces all concerned for her hollered, wordless chorus.  It’s one of their best songs, and makes for an electric opening.
The following ‘Walking On The Wire’ is less of an out and out belter, but still captures some of the key elements of their repertoire, with a riff that could be out of Jimmy Page’s ‘Slide Guitar 101’ course, aided and abetted by pounding drums, and embellished by intriguing slide mandolin breaks and a chant-along chorus.  There’s more of this kinda thing on the likes of ‘Free Man’, which is all about the grinding slide riff, and the ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ stylings of ‘Lost & Found’, with its stop-time riffing and the urgent vocal from Grace Bond on the chorus, while Roger Inniss emulates the elastic bass of Adam Bowers from the Saving Grace studio version.  Meanwhile the slide grind of ‘Innocence Of Youth’ suggests Aaron Bond has listened to ‘In My Time Of Dying’ more than a few times, and if it feels a bit stop-start and disjointed that doesn’t stop the crowd getting all riled up by it.
But if this is their “go to” foundational style, it’s some of their other leanings that give them satisfying range.  There’s a disarming, retro feel to the excellent harmonies on ‘My Babe Says That He Loves Me’.  The aforementioned ‘Don’t Tell Me Goodbye’ is Americana, via the Moptops’ ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ perhaps, simple but delivered with feeling and more convincing harmonies, and inspires some wistful singing along.  But ‘Bury My Body’ is even better, a seriously good song in a folkie vein – notwithstanding the ill-advised wobbly whistling on the intro – that’s one of the absolute highlights on offer.  Drummer James Fox switches instruments to provide delicate keyboard backing on ‘Tomorrow’, which is perhaps less subtle than on the studio version.  The crowd lap it up though, with at least one fella whooping his appreciation – though if I’d been there “in the moment” I might have been thinking “STFU, dude”.  Bah, humbug.
Down the stretch they could be stronger.  ‘Kissing The Sky’ starts off hinting at funk with its twanging bass, then jolts along in stop-start fashion, encompassing a tasty slice of slide mandolin – or is it violin?  ‘Want Your Love’ is also a bit thin, in spite of the punkish edge to the guitar intro and Grace Bond’s “blues’n’twos” fiddle break.  But I reckon different song choices would have landed some stronger punches.
Still, while Dylan and Hendrix might well give each other knowing looks over the riff to ‘Testify’, the moaning, Yardbirds-like backing vocals are still a nice twist, and Grace Bond’s vocal is satisfyingly explosive to bring down the curtain.
When Rivers Meet have certainly flown free over the last couple of years, winning fans and garnering awards.  But I do start to wonder: is that bare-bones Zep sound they lean on enough to let them soar higher; or do they need to strengthen their musical wings to avoid falling to earth?  Meantime, Flying Free Tour Live is an enjoyable souvenir of where they are right now – and Grace Bond’s voice continues to be something to behold.
 
Flying Free Tour Live is out now on One Road Records, and can be ordered here.

Gimme 5 - Aaron Bond of When Rivers Meet picks'n'mixes

Gimme 5 is the Blues Enthused feature in which guests name five songs that have got their attention lately; five key influences on their work; and five people they’d like to hang out with for a long lunch.  Today's guest is Aaron Bond of UK Blues Award-winning duo When Rivers Meet, who kick off their headline UK tour on 21 April, with support from Troy Redfern.  Let's go, Aaron!

Windswept and interesting When Rivers Meet

Pic by Rob Blackham

Gimme 5 songs, old or new, that have been on your radar recently.  [Check out the links to hear all Aaron's selections.]
 
'Sleeping On The Blacktop' by Colter Wall:  "Love his stripped back contemporary style of an old bygone era of music. It is just great just absolutely love it."
 

'Waiting For Your Man' by Robert Jon & The Wreck:  "Robert John & The Wreck are a great band, and they create such a great sound, and they are contemporary and just love it, just awesome!"  Check out the Blues Enthused review of Robert Jon & The Wreck's latest album Shine A Light On Me Brother here.
 
'Ghosts' by Troy Redfern:  "Troy is a great guitarist and Troy is joining us on our April/May tour around the UK and we can’t wait to hear him and see his stuff. It will be awesome!"  'Ghosts' comes from Troy Redfern's latest album The Fire Cosmic, reviewed here.
 
'Royal Tea' by Joe Bonamassa:  "Joe Bonamassa is the godfather of modern blues and a real trailblazer, and someone to be respected and listened to. We learn a lot from Joe Bonamassa." 
 
'Bulletproof' by Samantha Fish:  "Samantha Fish is the queen of the cigar box guitar, absolutely love what she does. We went to see her a couple of years ago before lockdown in Norwich and we were absolutely blown away by her. Absolutely fantastic, highly recommend!"  'Bulletproof' comes from Samantha Fish's 2019 album Kill Or Be Kind, reviewed here.
 
Gimme 5 artists or bands who have had a big influence on your work.

 

John Lee Hooker:  "He got me into the blues music from an early age, love his style, love his voice, and love everything about John Lee Hooker. Just so thankful that I heard his track'Boom Boom Boom' because it literally got me into the blues."

John Lee Hooker - cool blue stole my heart

Led Zeppelin:  "They were the most iconic band of all time, ranging from plenty of unique styles. They are the go-to band for classic rock and blues." 
 
Bad Company:  "The reason Bad Company is so significant is because of Paul Rodgers. His voice is absolutely amazing he is arguably the best rock and blues singer of all time." 
 
Guns N’ Roses:  "In my opinion Guns N’ Roses are the best rock band of all time. They had every influence running through every part of their music." 
 
Cream:  "They are the kings of classic rock and blues, and we just love everything bout them, especially Eric Clapton’s blues licks. His guitar playing is spectacular."
 
Gimme 5 guests you’d love to hang out with for a long lunch.
 
Axel Rose:  "He is the driving force behind Guns N’ Roses. I bet he has got a million stories to tell about his life. He’s led an interesting life and continues to do so. I would love to hear some of his stories."
 
William Shatner:  "His stories would be absolutely amazing, from his stage days because he was a thespian in Canada. Then going on to the pioneering programme Star Trek which I am sure

William Shatner - "Mr Sulu, turn the amps up to 11!"

lots of people will know about - and the man that has gone into space at 90 years old. Oh my god, would love to hear some of William Shatner’s stories."
 
Sylvester Stallone:  "There is something about Sylvester Stallone you’ve got to love and respect. He is very truthful about where he comes from and what he’s done and what he’s accomplished. Yeah, he would be an amazing person to listen to." 
 
David Attenborough:  "I mean if you are going to have a table full of people that are going to tell stories, David Attenborough if you love history and wildlife and things like that and anything to do with the planet it’s got to be him. He would be amazing to listen to." 

Lee Evans:  "I don’t think you can have a table full of absolute all-stars without having probably the top comedian of all time Mr Lee Evans. He’d be absolutely hilarious and yeah, I think he would have everybody laughing for sure." 
 
And finally, just one track – pick one of your tracks that you’d share with a new listener to introduce your music.
 
'He’ll Drive You Crazy' is our latest single from our second album Saving Grace, of which we are really proud. It’s gritty, it’s rocky, I am playing cigar box and Grace is playing the violin and it embodies our rocky blues side. So yes, that would be the one I would suggest to anybody – 'He’ll Drive You Crazy'."  Check out the Blues Enthused review of Saving Grace here.

When Rivers Meet's UK tour with special guest Troy Redfern starts on 21 April.  Tickets are available from The Gig Cartel, here.

If you want to listen to all of Aaron's selected tracks at once, then check out the playlist on the Blues Enthused YouTube channel, here.

You can also read the Gimme 5 Q&A with WRM's tour guest Troy Redfern, here.

When Rivers Meet - Saving Grace

Bang, bang, bang, on the door baby – bang, bang, on the door!  That hammering is the sound of When Rivers Meet, back with their second album Saving Grace, and demanding your attention.  The husband-and-wife duo of Grace and Aaron Bond, aided and abetted by their multi-instrumentalist producer Adam Bowers, like to make a rocking racket, and that alone will be enough to keep many headbanging fans happy.  But they’re not just one-trick ponies, as we’ll see.
There’s no ignoring the clatter-and-wallop dimension to the album though, so let’s start there, eh?  In this respect WRM’s go-to sound is frequently a primitive, skeletal, neo-Zeppelin vibe.  Take the song ‘Lost And Found’, for example.  A mucho Zep-like stop-time riff and drum rhythm

When Rivers Meet - strike a pose, there's nothing to it!

Pic by Rob Blackham

lay the foundations for Grace Bond’s edgy vocal, which then erupts into siren mode on the urgent, “Run for your life!” chorus, while Bowers adds rubbery bass, and then some paradiddling drumming towards the end.  Or there’s ‘Do You Remember My Name’ which combines an insistent, tense rhythm with a grinding guitar riff to bore into your brain, given a Page-like lift by a couple of snazzy slide mandolin motifs and some oddball sound effects, en route to a whipped-up finish.  Or there’s the stomp-along Bonzo-like shuffle of ‘Shoot The Breeze’, this time combined with a dipping slide riff, while Grace Bond adds a scraping break on what I take to be violin, before they change up the riff for the ending.  And there’s more – namely the furious closer ‘Make A Grown Man Cry’, its subterranean sledgehammer riff and landslide drums underpinning reverb-drenched hollering from the lady of the house.
Other heavy units show that they can lean away from the stripped-Led template though, and sometimes with extra credit. There are soul leanings discernible in Grace Bond’s terrific delivery of the chorus on ‘Never Coming Home’, for example – well, soul leanings from the Motor Town of Dagenham rather than Detroit, perhaps.  And joking apart, with Bowers adding some swirly organ backing and Jack Bruce-like bass, the song has a satisfying late 60s twist to it.  Meantime ‘Testify’ takes a snatch of ‘Watchtower’ riffing, then mixes in hurdy-gurdy keys and grooving bass from Bowers, while Mademoiselle Grace goes full throttle vocally, and also uses her violin to do a bit of harmonising with her other half’s Yardbirds-style moaned backing vocals.  There’s a whole lot going on in three-and-a-half minutes.
Hard rockin’ ain’t the whole deal though, and they explore different avenues elsewhere.  As straight up as the verses of ‘Have No Doubt About It’ may be, it still takes on a darkly Gothic quality, with Grace Bond’s eerie scrapes of violin, and potent, crystalline vocals - one could imagine it set to a nightmarish, black and white video.  Better still is the absorbing ‘Eye Of A Hurricane (Friend Of Mine Pt 2)’, which comes over like an old folk-blues tune à la Leadbelly, resurrected in ghostly fashion.  It’s Aaron Bond who renders the brooding lead vocal, but it’s the haunting, wordless vocal counterpoint provided by his missus that’s really striking.
But a pair of quieter tracks also shine.  ‘Don’t Tell Me Goodbye’ is simple and soulful, with a resonant melody.  It could go down an ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ road but ends up style-straddling with an Americana feel to great effect.  And ‘Talking In My Sleep’ is a delicate, affecting affair, combining melancholy harmonies with sparse acoustic strumming in exquisite fashion.
That diversity of material is good, because the Bonds do face one challenge with their heavier stuff – they don’t leaven their arrangements with much in the way of traditional “soloing”.  It’s evidently not Aaron Bond’s thing on guitar, and they seem wary of Grace Bond highlighting too much of her violin and slide mandolin.  And that’s fine.  But that being the case, they need to work harder on interesting bridges, codas and so on – even the false ending with mock spoken interruption on ‘He’ll Drive You Crazy’ – to maintain listeners’ interest.
For now though, When Rivers Meet are on a roll.  Their Saving Grace, as it were, is that their sound is so distinctive.  It can surely make many a casual listener sit bolt upright and think “What the proverbial . . . is that?”  Bang, bang, bang, on the door baby!

Saving Grace is released on 19 November on One Road Records, and can be ordered here.

Read the Blues Enthused review of debut album We Fly Free by When Rivers Meet here.

And you can read the review of The EP Collection here.

When Rivers Meet - The EP Collection

Okay, so let’s recap.  When Rivers Meet are a British blues-type duo, comprising Grace and Aaron Bond.  They released their debut album We Fly Free in November 2020.  Many of you will know this.  But before that they’d released two EPs – The Uprising in September 2019 and Innocence Of Youth in May 2020.  Some of you will know this, and will have snaffled copies of those EPs some time back.  Good for you.  Now go get a coffee while the rest of us catch up.
You can’t get those two EPs any more, in their original form.  But you can now get this single CD double-helping of them.

So for the unenlightened, here’s the lowdown.

Grace and Aaron Bond - they get a bit dark

Pic by Terry Crouch

  Opening track ‘Free Man’ typifies a key strand of the WRM modus operandi.  The intro is heavy on twangeroonie from Grace Bond's 
resonator mandolin, till she cuts loose vocally over grinding slide guitar from husband Aaron, and boom-crash drums courtesy of co-producer Adam Bowers.  The Bonds don’t go in for much soloing, but here there’s a brief mandolin break that manages to sound peculiarly like tinkling high notes from a piano.  Later on, ‘Innocence Of Youth’ is in a similar vein.  There’s some Page-like slithering slide on the intro, but the backing is minimal until it’s interrupted by jagged crunches of guitar and drums as the song takes off.  At which point Grace Bond lets fly like an air raid siren - that’s the kind of vocal impact she makes when she hits top gear.
But that’s not the only way When Rivers Meet roll.  The Bond girl gets delicate like a Homeric Siren on the gorgeous melody of ‘Tomorrow’, backed by faintly chiming guitar chords and spot on harmonies from Aaron.  Harmonies are also at the heart of ‘Like What You See’, a song that’s steamier than a Turkish baths in a heatwave.  It pulses along, restrained and tense, with ringing guitar chords and thudding bass and kick drum.  Then it builds in intensity, with violin thrown into the mix, until La Bond raises her voice in – how shall we put this? – a wordless moan of rapture.
‘Kill For Your Love’ is daring too, all throbbing guitar and snapping, rattling percussion, while Ms Bond croons her way through a darkly violent, obsessive sounding lyric.  At moments like these there’s a Gothic edge to the WRM vibe. ‘My Babe Says That He Loves Me’, similarly, is nobody’s straight-up ballad.  It combines big, rough-edged guitar chords, wistfully descending vocal harmonies, and lines about whispering ravens and “the hidden truth of falling tears”.  Add in a handbrake turn for the chorus, a neat mandolin break, and some pounding drums, and there’s plenty to keep you listening.
They don’t always hit the bullseye.  There’s plenty of dynamics on ‘A Dead Man Doesn’t Lie’, with its ticking riff like a dialled-down grandchild of Zeppelin, but it feels a bit thin to be extended to over five minutes, for all that Grace Bond elevates it with an eerie violin solo.  And the same is maybe true of ‘Want Your Love’, despite its fuzzy, propulsive rhythm guitar, another scraping, ear-catching fiddle break, and a big crescendo at the end.
But here’s the thing.  Nobody else out there sounds like When Rivers Meet.  They’re also a photogenic pair, which can’t hurt.  And I reckon they’re pretty social media savvy too. Little wonder they’ve managed to create a buzz like a beehive in just a couple of years.  When live music returns, one fine day, you’d better snap up your tickets to see ‘em sharpish, because they’re gonna be in demand.
 
You can order The EP Collection from the When Rivers Meet website, here.

Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2020 - Part 1

Oh, the irony!  2020 has been a disastrous year for any professional musician not insulated by superstardom, with live music ravaged and with it the opportunity for many CD and merchandise sales.  But at the same time it’s been an astonishingly good year for new studio albums – possibly the best I can remember over the six years I’ve been writing this stuff.

So with that in mind, Part 1 of this year’s Christmas Stocking review is given over to reminders of ten of the best examples - and look out for the links to the original album reviews.  This ain’t a chart, and it’s not an exhaustive list, so you may well have favourites that don’t appear.  But that probably just underlines the strength in depth that 2020 brought us.

First up then, are Denmark’s finest, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, who lit up January with their latest album Come On In.  Apart from his distinctive bass voice, Risager is a songwriter with an acute sense of his blues inspirations but who also finds fresh angles.  And on Come On In that leads to material making refreshing use of acoustic guitar in addition to the Black Tornado’s usual big band sound, plus intriguing rhythms courtesy of drummer Martin Seidelin.  Here’s an early live take of the title track, dating back to 2018.

Of course, coronavirus lockdowns themselves became the stimulus for new work.  Two of the best results, for me, were Mike Zito’s Quarantine Blues, and on this side of the Atlantic the Birdmens collaboration that resulted in the album Lockdown Loaded.
Zito was first out of the blocks, evidently driven by frustration and financial concern after he was forced to abandon a lengthy European tour that had barely started.  Knocked out in just two weeks, Quarantine Blues crackled with creative energy, and did what Zito is best at, getting beyond pure blues into broader terrain.  As I said in my review, it’s a goddamn rock’n’roll rekkud!  Here he is with the Petty-esque 'Looking Out This Window', from a rare live excursion in June this year.

The Birdmens gang, inspired by a bundle of drum loops from producer and guitarist Dave Doherty, and featuring the likes of Ian Siegal, Jon Amor, Bob Fridzema and Jonny Henderson, rocked up at the end of May with Lockdown Loaded, an eclectic batch of barnstormers ranging from Delta stomp to Zepped-up funk to keening Americana.  Have a gander at this video of ‘Cover It Up’, which sounds a bit like it’s escaped from the theme to ancient TV show A Man In A Suitcase!

Some new names made a mark for me this year too, starting off with Norfoll-based Little Red Kings.  Their second album, The Magic Show Part One, was a cattleprod-jolt of rootsy rock, with a clutch of curveballs thrown in to keep you on your musical toes.  Here’s the unusual lyric video for one of those curveballs, the subtle and moody ‘Magic Show’ itself.

Canada’s Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are a more straightforward proposition: scorching Sixties-style soul music, with a singer in young Samantha who sounds like she could tear your playhouse down.  Their album The Reckless One is swinging, torch-carrying, love-in-vain R’n’B fare, and mostly originals to boot.  Get yourself in the groove with this video of them in upbeat, 'Nowhere To Run' mode, with ‘Don’t Have To Be’.

But the new name that made the biggest impression was When Rivers Meet, aka married British musos Grace and Aaron Bond, who have stormed into the rock consciousness with the unorthodox bluesiness of their debut album We Fly Free.  Why unorthodox?  Because they’re flying free of the guitar solo-ing norms of blues-rock, and foregrounding their voices – especially the eye-popping singing of Grace as she sweeps from delicate hush to adrenalin rush.  Guitar does feature, but largely as a rhythm and slide engine, with embellishments provided by Mamzelle Bond via injections of fiddle and – wait for it – resonator mandolin slide playing.  Anyhoo, check ‘em out on this video of ‘Tomorrow’, from one of their 2019 EPs!

Regular readers will know that I get a bit sniffy about some of the ‘Southern rock’ that gets paraded around as having a blues/blues-rock appeal.  But that’s an argument for another day, because there was one Southern rock album this year that brooked no argument.  Last Light On The Highway by Robert Jon & The Wreck was a hook-laden belter.  Maybe it’s because they’re not good ol’ boys from the Deep South, but from California, but Robert Jon & The Wreck mostly avoided getting sucked into latter-day Southern rock stereotypes.  Still, if you like an Allman Brothers guitar sound, you should enjoy them on 'Do You Remember'.

Which just leaves us with three more familiar names to conjure with - Walter Trout, Jim Kirkpatrick, and King King.

Now, Walter Trout may be regarded by many as yer archetypal, guitar-flaying blues-rocker.  But to my mind there’s more to the fella than that – to wit, he’s a damn good songwriter who isn’t a slave to the 12-bar format.  And his latest album Ordinary Madness proves my point, with tracks ranging across various styles.  Get a load of ‘Heartland’, for example, as a classy example of rootsy rock.

Jim Kirkpatrick may not have a host of solo albums behind him - just one, in fact, before this year.  But he's still a known quantity by virtue of his work with FM, the Chris Bevington Organisation and more besides.  And he deserves a bigger following on the back of his new solo outing, Ballad Of The Prodigal Son, he really does.  It’s not full-on guitar overload from start to finish, but our Jim doesn’t half let rip at times.  Whether it’s blues, boogie, glossy instrumental or throw-in-the-kitchen-sink, the songs impress – bar one, and I’ll forgive him that – the delivery is great, and the guitar playing runs wild.  Check out the video for the monumental ‘Brave New World’, and tell me if I’m wrong.

And then there's King King.  Alan Nimmo has recast the King King line-up, and completed their metamorphosis from modern British blues heralds to fully-fledged Adult Orientated Rockers.  With a leading role for newly-liberated secret weapon Jonny Dyke on keyboards, new album Maverick finds the KK boys switching from glossy hard rock to gob-smacking power ballad and back again with consummate ease.  Check out the video for the mountainous 'Never Give In' for starters.

So there we have the first instalment of goodies for your edification and delight.  Merry Christmas one and all - go easy on the cake and mince pies, and we'll get together for Part 2 next week!

You can find Part 1 of the 2020 Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking here.

When Rivers Meet - We Fly Free

When it comes to setting out your stall, When Rivers Meet – the musical moniker of British husband and wife duo Aaron and Grace Bond – do a fair old job on ‘Did I Break The Law’.  The opening salvo on their debut album We Fly Free, it weighs in with a grinding rhythm guitar riff over a stomping drumbeat, and before long works itself up into a fair old lather.  You’d have to reckon, listening to this, that life chez Bond can be a pretty LOUD affair at times.
This raw and primitive aesthetic isn’t exactly unique – compare Lincoln Durham, fr’instance.  But

When Rivers Meet - they make a cute couple, dontcha think?

Pic by Terry Crouch

When Rivers Meet do have a unique selling point, namely the way in which Grace Bond’s voice stalks the album’s landscape like that of a windswept and mysterious sorceress, right from her “Oh yeaah, oh yay-yay-hey-yeaah” hollering on that opening track.
Now, I don’t mean that she gets her wail on from start to finish, though our Grace certainly has the pipes to compete with the surging guitar and pounding drums on the likes of their single ‘Battleground’, to name just one example.  Nor do I mean that her voice dominates proceedings, bearing in mind the underpinning harmonies often provided by the deeper voice of her other half, who also provides the lead vocal on a couple of tracks.  No, what I mean is that her voice has the quality and personality to make When Rivers Meet standout from the herd like neon.  Her pure, clear vocal contributes to the light and shade on ‘Bound For Nowhere’, for example, alongside Aaron Bond’s doomy, midnight-graveyard guitar line, before they explode into stridency with the aid of producer Adam Bowers’ clattering drums.  And she shows real delicacy on the quieter, enigmatic ‘I’d Have Fallen’, over gently sawing violin and off-kilter percussion.  It’s the sort of track that I reckon might have latterday Robert Plant nodding his approval for its distinctive, not-just-same-old-blues-rock approach, right down to La Bond’s slide resonator mandolin (yes, you read that right) outro.
Not that this is a one-woman show.  When Aaron Bond takes the vocal reins on ‘Breaker Of Chains’, over a restrained bluesy guitar refrain and with background harmonies from his missus, they again manage to deliver something different, with the feel of an English folk song or maybe even a hymnal as they sing about reaching out for the last time “through the door of evermore”, and add a brief bridge of drums paradiddling away under sweeps of sombre fiddle.
Some songs are more straight up, like ‘Walking On The Wire’, which opens with a dirty blues slide riff, and sounds like the sort of tune Elles Bailey might cook up – except delivered with the aid of a sledgehammer, amid serpentine injections of fiddle and washes of Hammond organ.  It also demonstrates their penchant for an oft-repeated vocal line – in this case “Are you the fortunate son?” – that could seem lazy but in fact takes on a mantra-like quality.  ‘Kissing The Sky’ is a tale of love sickness like a stripped back funky rocker, with trampolining bass and a slide mandolin solo that sounds like a ghost emerging from a crypt.  And ‘Take Me To The River’, matches another vocal from Mr Bond to a swaggering blues rock riff and a squeakingly high-pitched slide mandolin break.
But the longest track here, ‘Bury My Body’, offers simplicity of a different kind.  Melodically sweeter, it combines the couple’s voices beautifully, over little more than gentle acoustic guitar and some strokes of piano and organ.  The end result is elegance that sounds effortless.
There are twelve songs on We Fly Free, and they’re all good, some of them startlingly so.  What’s more, When Rivers Meet deliver them with a real clarity of vision, in a distinctive style that’s full of grace and danger. I predict great things.

We Fly Free is released by One Road Records on 20 November, and can be pre-ordered here.

And you can read the review of The EP Collection, comprising material released before the album, here.