Francesco Piu
Album: Live At Bloom
Label: Groove Company
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.www.francescopiu.com

Francesco Piu is being lauded as being the best thing to come out of Sardinia for a long time. The Italian blues scene is raving about his last album: Ma-Moo Tones. So now we have a live album, recorded in Italy in March this year.

The first thing to notice is Francesco's deep growl of a voice - it certainly has a bluesy feel.

With just drums and guitar the sound is minimal. Overall the sound was pretty muddy. The vocals were in places indistinct, perhaps down to the live recording.

The set comprises a mixture of originals and covers. Dylans' Gotta Serve Somebody, Richie Haven's Freedom and Motherless Child, as covered by Clapton are all included.

With just three original songs on the album, it is hard to make any overall judgement.

Down on My Knees features overdriven slide guitar and moves along quite sweetly, though I struggled to grasp the lyrics. Stand-by Button is a stop-start funky blues, with a weak guitar break. The acoustic Over You is the best of the original songs with a driving rhythm. and some fine picking.

Motherless Child is slowed down to barely walking pace, which I found particularly cumbersome. The final song is an acapella version of Jesus Is On The Mainline, which unfortunately only serves to highlight the weak vocals.

John Knighton