REVIEW: LIRA ROOTS AND WORLD MUSIC MAGAZINE, SWEDEN September 2015
Mandolin Blues.
Following up his 2013 musical journey to Thailand, Bert Deivert has returned to his own roots, that is, blues, and with Swedish musical colleagues. It starts out on full speed with Baby Please Don’t Go and the songs that follow are pure classics except for a couple of Deivert’s originals. The whole album was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, and you can hear that the band is rocking.
At times I think that blues feels rather constrained in its structure, but I am caught up in the groove that Copperhead Run provides, where Deivert’s mandolin playing has a fresh feel and a fine contrast to Zander’s beautiful guitar playing. At times, as in Special Agent, the music gravitates towards bluegrass (mandolin!) which provides a change of pace. Some of the songs are also on Deivert’s more acoustic solo cd, KID MAN BLUES, which he released two albums ago, but it feels like these versions are more complements than reiteration.
– Ulf Torstensson