LA BLUES COMPANY: An album destined to become a classic

Talking about La Blues Company, besides being the title of Ñaco Goñi and the first record published by Gaztelupeko Hotsak, is mainly talking about Donostia’s legendary La Gatera club. A place with a long history and a national reference that has been the cultural lifeblood of Donostia’s nights for over ten years. A club far away from fashions and passing trends, which preserved the blues spirit against all odds under Jon Gurruchaga and Santi Parra management.  25 years after its final closure, Jon takes the initiative to gather some of the genre’s most important performers.

If we bring together in a studio legendary harp player Ñaco Goñi (Tonky Blues Band, Jokers, Malcolm Scarpa, Ñaco Goñi y Bluescavidas), along with a true piano blues icon like the Donostiarra pianist and singer Paul San Martin (Stay Blues, Paul San Martin trio, The Fake Cousins), and we add, on one side, brilliant guitar player and singer from Madrid Edu Bighands (Dinamita Blues Band, Ñaco Goñi y los Bluescavidas, Whiskey Train, Edu Bighands) and, on the other, Granada´s guitar player and singer Fernando Beiztegui, completing the lineup with Catalan drummer Martí Elías (Mambo Jambo, Ray Gelato), La Blues Company is undoubtedly the best news any Blues fan could hope for in recent times.

Recorded at Pottoko Studios in Beasain by Fredi Peláez and mixed by Edu Bighands, this debut album more than meets all the necessary requirements to become a reference record. A direct, high-octane work, done the old-fashioned way, with the unmatched personality of legendary musicians who take on the task with the true and genuine spirit of Blues made on this side of the Atlantic.

La Blues Company makes its debut with a pulsing shuffle rhythm, both on the instrumental track composed by the band, Pottoko Shuffle, and on hypnotic Long Road Blues, led by Fernando Beiztegui´s powerful voice and written by him. Edu Bighands masterfully revisits the traditional I Want You by My Side by Mississippi singer and harmonica player Billy ‘Jazz’ Gillum, under Ñaco Goñi´s direction, handing over vocal duties to Paul San Martin on New Early in The Morning by harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson I. Beiztegui signs Dance with the Devil, a mid-tempo track featuring Goñi’s fiery phrasing and a piano blues masterclass blues by San Martin. An exquisite selection of tracks that delve into the depths of the most authentic Blues, revisiting classics like Magic Sam’s You Belong to Me, led by Edu Bighands. It uncovers magnificent gems such as Beefstake Blues by singer John ‘Son’ Thomas, with Paul San Martin on vocals and piano, and Beiztegui’s slide guitar, to revisit Lightnin’ Hopkins’ Lightnin’ Boogie, featuring the incomparable rhythmic work of Martí Elías and Paul San Martin’s left hand. Another great asset of this album is the original compositions by Fernando Beiztegui. The Granada native signs Strange Feeling Blues, a slow blues with a classic feel. In Low Down Dog, Paul San Martin revitalizes ‘shouter’ Big Joe Turner with a boogie rhythm, leading to echoes halfway between Junior Parker and Otis Rush on It’s Hurt to Live (Kneeling Down Before This Scum), written by Beiztegui. The album also travels through classics like I Got the Blues by pianist and singer ‘Big Maceo’ Merriweather, Chicago sounds on Willie Dixon’s Mellow Down Easy, and Half Ain’t Been Told by pianist Otis Spann. Finally, it resurrects the spirit of Magic Sam on That’s Why I’m Crying, interpreted by Edu Bighands featuring Fredi Peláez on Hammond organ, combined with San Martín piano.

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