Blues Blend - When Daylight Comes (2008)

Blues Blend - just what it says on the tin! These five musicians from Frankfurt may be a lot of things – but they’re certainly no staunch purists. No surprise then that for the main part, their new CD consists of originals - with each musician adding his own flavour to the Blend, using the good old 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s style as stepping stone. And if they do cover a Willie Dixon song, you bet it’ll be a lesser-known one. Chances are, you won’t hear a staple like “Hoochie Coochie Man” or “Sweet Home Chicago” from them.
Sad but true, there’s a stigma attached to the Blues, and it’s the same that keeps the uneducated from broadening their palate, from so much as even sneaking an ear into the Blues: too many musicians stick to the tried and tested, limiting themselves by clinging to a canonical repertoire. Of course, Blues Blend don’t reinvent the game - but they do keep the ball rolling! They’ve accepted the challenge of pushing the envelope, using traditional instruments: a masterly played blues harp, a marvellously clear guitar sound, a boogie-based piano and a confident backing by bass and drum.
Take a trip with “When Daylight Comes” and find yourself in the company of Boogie, Slow Blues, and Shuffle, meet musical quotes from every kind of popular style, and take a dip with Soul, Funk, Latin, R&B, Ska, Swing, Country Blues, and sweet, sweet ballads. Jaded tropes like “my baby left me” may be missing, but then there’s no shortage of real topics in the lyrics. There’s relationships, loneliness, a moment of deep crisis, sure - but such is the Blues. Doesn’t mean you have to give yourself over wholesale to depression.
It should go without saying that there’s no offense intended when Blues Bend sing a line like, “You ain’t good looking and I can’t stand your cooking.” That’s entertainment, and a tongue firmly planted in cheek. Entertainment with a big “E,” just like their pinstripe suits and two-tone shoes which are most probably to blame when some writers already dub the band “Mafia-styled” and “Gangsta Blues.”
Rasmus Radke who designed the album cover must have caught on to that, somehow; or why else would he have come up with such an image?