Danny Bryant's Redeyeband at Clowne Blues Club 17/08/03

Clowne Blues Club in Derbyshire has been host to some great blues artists. This Sunday evening they were host to a great up-and-coming band from Royston in Herts.

Often described as a Walter Trout protégé, this brilliant young man sure can play the blues. In the set there were some Walter Trout songs, the heavy blues end of the spectrum, but they certainly are blues.

Danny's reputation is growing rapidly; it must be as the ex-Hoax drummer Dave Raeburn was happily standing in for Andy Burt the regular drummer.

The set kicked off with “Play to Win (Born to Lose)” from his second studio CD “Shadows Passed”. A straight ahead Chicago style 12 bar, it really hit the mark. Following with “Crying for My Baby” from his first CD, this is a more good time kinda blues with superb guitar playing.

Asking the substantially sized audience if they liked Walter Trout, Danny eased into the American artist's mega blues “Reason I'm Gone”. Dare I say this was every bit as good as the ex-Bluesbreakers version? Maybe I dare! It was fantastic with volume swells and strong gritty vocals. Another catch from the Trout farm was “Girl From The North Country” with some really nice chords from Danny's sunburst finish Fender. Continuing with “Goin'Back Home” complete with a delta blues style intro morphing into a fast tempo original blues rocker, Danny kept with his own songs, including “Living With The Blues” and “Heartbreaker”, a superb riff-laden 12 bar in the key of A. The antics of Dave Raeburn showed you can still have fun when playing the blues; he's a superb percussionist too.

The distinctive three chord progression of Sonny Boy's “Help Me (Babe)” brought some vintage blues to the set and continued with the often covered “Five Long Years”. Peter Green's “Albatross” slowed things down for a few minutes before Walter Trout's “Tellin' Stories” brought the dancers flooding on to the floor. They know how to live at Clowne Blues Club! Keeping the momentum going Danny went into Elmore mode to play a superb version of “Dust My Broom”! What a superb set. This was thought to be the last song but the Clowne clientele were having none of this so Danny and his Redeyeband satisfied the Sunday night revellers with an arrangement of Walter Trout's “I Can Tell” as a rousing encore. Great stuff!

Steve Lally