Blues Fragments of the Heart

What sets this disc apart from so many others is the tremendous quality and clarity of the sound, and this is on all levels.  Be it the unadulterated vividness of the sound with the instruments or the stunning vocals of Diane Blue, it is a quality you can distinctly feel here.  The care taken with each facet of this project is palpable, and this is often true of Stony Plain projects, there is an eye to all the small details that make up the project, a tip of the hats to the painstaking work of Holger Petersen and his crew for their attention to the details that sonically sets this apart from the rest of the discs out there. 

The Broadcasters had occasionally had a guest vocalist, however for the longest stretch of time it seems they had been an instrumental band, and an exceedingly tight one at that.  This version of the Broadcasters is Lorne Entress on drums; Dave Limina, piano and Hammond B3; Jim Mouradian, on bass; Diane Blue on vocals; of course Ronnie Earl on guitar; and guest musician Nicholas Tabarias on guitar. There are 10 songs on this album and if I can count accurately half of them have Diane Blue’s heart-felt vocals on them. Five of the songs are written by Ronnie Earl, one of which is co-written with Diane Blue, and the others by writers such as Dave Limina, Otis Rush, Eddy Arnold & Cindy Walker, Gerry Goffin & Barry Goldberg, and Deadric Malone (Don Robey).  Just for the record 4:19 is the shortest song on the disc and there is over an hour of heart-felt music here.  

There is a quality to this recording that is so real it is actually felt, almost like another player here.  There is the clarity and depth of feeling that Diane Blue puts across in her turn to the microphone.  She is a feeling woman and the depth and honesty of that feeling comes through in the clarity of her vocal.  Many vocalists have a clarity but here the feeling from her heart comes through with all the strength and power she possesses.  Then there is Mister Earl’s playing, it is not showing off some amazing displays of blazing speed during his solos, no, they are thought out and each note you can tell is specially selected and held for ‘that’ length of time that shows them off for what they are, pieces of his soul; heart-felt notes that are from the depths of the deepest insides.  A beautifully crafted disc.    

by bob gottlieb