Sunnyland Bluesband - Mean Dog (1997) Lossless

One of the best blues bands in Germany and two top singers from the U. S.A. offer contemporary blues rock at its best. With their groovy, funky, Texas-Style Rhythm'n Blues original compositions, the six excellent musicians succeed in captivating the audience. The "hard core" of the band consists of the talented blues guitarist Gerd Vogel, the groovy bassman Tom Bornemann, the unbeatable drummer Martin Stehl and the virtuoso pianist Wolf Dobberthin, who soon serves a hissing-hissing organ, soon a honky-tonk-piano. Due to the professionalism and the outstanding voice of the singer Shaun Williamson, who joined the Sunnies in January 1996, the character and the sound of the Wiesbaden band changed for the better. Shaun Williamson earned his bun for four years as frontman of the "Atlanta Rhythm Section" and completed studio sessions with such illustrious musicians as the Moody Blues and James Brown. About three months later, Shaun Williamson brought his sister Shelly, who has performed with her "Janis Joplin tube" from Tahiti to L.A. and from Atlanta to Berlin, during her visit to Germany, first as a guest singer in the band; she arrived so well with the audience that she has been a regular guest since June 1996. Shortly thereafter, Susanne Lorenz and Cornelia Kohlhöfer, personal friends of the band and owner of the Lorenz Production Company, decided to send the Sunnyland blues band to the studio. In only 10 days, the album "Mean Dog" was created, on which the band undogmatically moves between tradition and modernity and proves its expressiveness and sense for grooves. Band members Shaun Williamson, who was the lead vocalist of the well-known "Atlanta Rhythm Section" for four years and also collaborated with the Moody Blues, James Brown and Lynnyrd Skynnyrd, gives the band with his "little" sister Shelly Williamson right drive. Whether rock songs or sensitive ballads, the expressive brother and sister who sings in their native language, one unexpectedly chases goose bumps over the body. Guitarist Gerd Vogel is an exceptional blues guitarist with his talent and musicality, and it's great fun listening to him unleash whole stories on his guitar. On a joint tour with John Mayall, he announced to the press that "Gerd Vogel is the best Blues guitar player I've heard in Germany in the last five years!" - a special distinction, considering that the same man has discovered Eric Clapton for more than thirty years. Martin Stehl, who studied drumming with Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta, won Best Drummer at the prestigious Yamaha Band Competition. He forms a groovy rhythm group that goes straight into the legs, together with Tom Bornemann, who like to hit his Fender Jazz-Bass like a thumping bass or rush over the strings with funky sixteenth-notes à la Pastorius, to the surprise of everyone to unpack the fat thumb. The picture is completed by Wolf Dobberthin on the Hammond organ and on the piano. Dobberthin has been performing the musicals "Grease", "Chicago" and "Sweet Charity" for three years as "Musical Director" for the Hessissche Staatstheater.(google)