Our Songs.
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On a planet where world events color everything dark, Slinky Williams and P’tit Loup deliver a little light through their funky, upbeat blend of acoustic jazz, swing and blues. Their partnership and lasting love affair began in 1972, when both were studying classical guitar in Cologne, Germany.
An accomplished mandolin player and guitarist, Slinky‘s vocal stylings blend the jazz sensibilities of Billie Holiday with the blues power of Bessie Smith, while P’tit Loup is a stylish guitarist with a mellow tenor voice. Their career has featured stints in folk and world music in the ‘70s and ‘80s then to jazz and blues-rock with the band The Xperts. They’ve been performing as an acoustic duo since that group disbanded in 2014.
Slinky and P’tit Loup revere their musical heritage. Their stage names are a tip of the hat to some of their favorite musicians, many of whom worked in New Orleans and adopted unusual personas before them. Zone Bleue is a powerful follow-up to 2015 release, Movin’ On, the couple’s first release as a duo after several others in other genres.
This release delivers the same type of musical stylings that earned the couple critical praise and worldwide airplay, but comes in a slightly different format. Shortly after the release of Movin’ On, Slinky and P’tit Loup began touring with upright bassist Joe Leduc. They quickly discovered that his tasteful play and backing vocals added depth to the mix and pleased audiences wherever they appeared. Now a fulltime member of the ensemble, Monster Joe’s contributions round out the sound you’ll hear here.
Four of the tunes on Zone Bleue were recorded under the direction of Thomas Gutthoff at his Tonstudio Gutthoff. The rest were captured and engineered by the couple in the home they share in western Germany, not far from the Dutch and Belgian borders.
A stylish, uptown cover of the Willie Dixon/Little Walter standard, “My Babe,” opens the disc, introduced by a slick fingerpicked guitar run from P’tit Loup before Slinky’s vocals reinvent the classic. Monster Joe demonstrates why the couple chose to revise their act with his brief mid-tune solo.
A double lead on mandolin and guitar drive “High And Lonesome” with P’tit Loup’s relaxed vocals giving the song, a 1953 hit for Jimmy Reed, an entirely new feel before Slinky makes J.J. Cale’s minor-key “These Blues” her own. Next up is “Sugar Daddy,” a Slinky original inspired by a pair of films directed by Louis Malle: “Pretty Baby,” about the Storyville district of New Orleans, and “Atlantic City,” which starred Burt Lancaster as a gentleman gangster.
The band revives “How Long Blues,” written in 1928 by Leroy Carr, the creator of the Chicago blues piano sound, in a slow-blues interpretation first recorded by folk music great Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Two Louis Jordan classics follow: sultry, unrushed covers of “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” which includes another Monster Joe standout solo, and the Prohibition Era “Blue Light Boogie.”
Slinky reinterprets “My Baby Left Me” -- written by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and a hit for Elvis Presley -- from a woman’s point of view before P’tit Loup delivers the vocals on Cale’s “River Boat Song” featuring Slinky’s double tracked solos on classical and steel string guitar. The set concludes with Slinky delivering the bittersweet original, “Married Man Blues,” about a woman who discovers the man of her dreams is already taken.
The CD version of this disc, which was also released on vinyl, features three additional tunes: live versions of “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby” and “Blue Light Boogie” as well as “The Story Of Sam Maghett,” a Slinky and P’tit original about the life of guitar legend Magic Sam, the West Side Chicago blues master who died at the top of his game in 1969 at just 32 years old.
Zone Bleue serves up music that spans a century, some old, some modern, some new – but all with a pleasant, timeless feel that will have you listening to it over and over again.
-- Marty Gunther, Writer, Blues Blast Magazine
