The singer and guitarist from Treviso Stefano Stella boasts numerous collaborations with established musicians of the national blues circuit. Active since the early 1990s, he was part of Guido Toffoletti's Blues Society in the period 1996 and 1997 and later flew to Austin, Texas where he confronted the local music scene. Over the years he has shared some projects with the blues historian Stefano Zabeo and recently he has also collaborated with the guitarist Steve Saluto.
Stefano Stella made his debut in October 2018 with his very personal Musician’s Blues project built together with longtime colleagues Corrado Menegon on bass and Simone Manzato on drums. So let's listen to what the Stefano Stella Band managed to put together on this brand new record.
Corrado Menegon's opaque bass acts as a forerunner in the first track of the album entitled LOVE IS OVER. An electric guitar with a Bourbon flavor writes a caramel-colored solo, evoking fruity and floral aromas with subtle spicy tips. Sweet and soft on the palate, Stella's six string leaves the aftertaste of aging in barrique with perfectly toasted American oak staves.
The tasting continues with STOP BABY STOP in which slides and harmonica whizzing comfortably in the rear seats of B.B.'s black Cadillac. King and Eric Clapton. A pleasant car ride to the Tartyinesque Titty Twister with the dust rising from the wheels, a handful of winking choruses and an imposing bass that makes friction with the asphalt. The bold tones combined with the choirs of Pia Coppe and the harmonica of Carlo Zambon foreshadow trouble: better to stop in time, the goal is not always what is expected.
MUSICIAN'S BLUES is a soft shadow that expands like an oil stain on the surface of the water. An expansion wrapped in a dark halo, a background blues that is even more enchanted by Stella's fingering and Simone Manzato's delicacy on the skins.
We now meet the first non-autographed track on the disc. BACKDOOR MAN by Willie Dixon is immediately muffled by Menegon's bass which becomes the essential protagonist of this reinterpretation. Stella's voice is circumfused and embraced by the female one that creates sugary dynamics and delicate fragrances like a rose but at the same time intense and persistent. A classic reinterpreted by dampening the incisiveness of Dixon's voice and making everything more loose and dilated. The half-placed wah wah gives softness to the piece, evoking the play of light and shadow of a fleeting love like that of the backdoor man.
HELP THE POOR written by Charles Singleton here recalls the atmospheres of David Crosby of Long Time Gone in the intro. A borderline blues that frays and expands to the lysergic atmospheres of the 70's. A violent and incisive wah wah points the finger at the listener, threatens and stabs him with precise and penetrating stilettos. In the final, the female voice arches her vocal eyebrows and vibrates disconsolate head swings, recognizing a problematic situation and holding out her hand for help. I'm in trouble don't see you. Help the poor, won't you help poor me?
Then it's up to I’M A WORKMAN that opens with an intro of drums reminiscent of the Hard Crowd of the Black Crowes and then moves towards the dirty electric beaches of CSN and the psychfunk ones of the Black Shit. The band worked hard to fit the most disparate references into an original musical tetris. A gigantic copper cauldron and three tireless workmen who mix dissimilar sound ingredients: the result is a ductile and raw polentone that goes perfectly with the ciccioso touch of the Stefano Stella Band sonic stew.
LONELY AVENUE, written and composed by Doc Pomus, starts here fluently and then suddenly sours with a harsh and harsh harmonic. To soften it all up, the vocal warmth of the refrain is accommodating, with a delicate consistency of almond paste. A blues that evolves and escapes in many directions while advancing "sitting" and with the handbrake pulled, placidly sprawled in a faded, comfortable and deformed armchair, worn and irreplaceable.
YOU DON'T LOVE ME by Willie Cobbs here is smoothed by the edges, rounded with a nice file to round off the pointed edges and make them caressing and curvilinear. The woodwinds, the acidity of the guitar turns and the pungent voice of the original disappear, leaving room for a pacioccona sonic roundness and a character of southern German-style truck band pacification.
This debut album ends with the SITTING IN MY KITCHEN shuffle. Initially the acrimonious and acid harmonica makes its way accompanied by a shuffle rhythm on the guitar that takes the run-up and presses the trigger of the start.
Tracklist:
01. Love is Over 05:43
02. Stop Stop Baby 06:25
03. Musician’s Blues 05:49
04. Backdoor Man 07:14
05. Help the Poor 05:41
06. I’m a Workman 06:09
07. Lonely Avenue 06:10
08. You Don’t Love Me 05:05
09. Sitting in My Kitchen 06:59
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