WILLE AND THE BANDITS
I suppose if you were to call Wille And The Bandits a blues rock trio then you might just get away with it but, to my ears, their music encapsulates much more than just that genre. 'Grow' is their third album and it's a huge sounding combination of Soul, Reggae, World Music and of course Blues and Heavy Rock. They are another more recent band who take the classic blues sound and are twisting it into something different. On the whole, they've made a fine effort. In their career so far, Wille And The Bandits have supported such diverse acts as Deep Purple, Status Quo, Joe Bonamassa and Roots Manuva and have played Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, Cropredy and Shambala Festivals amongst many others. From my point of view, if you were to merge Bob Dylan, Santana, Jethro Tull, The Police, a touch of Deep Purple, add some classic Blues and then a fresh modern twist you would get somewhere near what they sound like, but they really are very diverse and should appeal to a wide variety of music listeners. One thing that is not in question is the level of musicianship. Wille plays an absolutely wondrous & beautiful slide guitar with great bourbon soaked vocals (he plays all acoustic and electric guitars), Matt's six string electric bass and five string double bass is killer and Andy's big mixture of drums and various percussion is fantastic.
Song-wise, my favourites are 'Got To Do Better', 'Gypsy Woman', the quite beautiful 'Under The Grove', the pretty damn heavy 'Son Of The Gun' and the near thirteen minute epic 'Angel', but nearly all of the songs kick. 'Try To Be Yourself', however, to my ears at any rate, fails to go anywhere and is bland, but one below par track does not a bad album make and, of course, with so many styles of music incorporated on the album it's more than likely that plenty of you will like it.
Wille And The Bandits are renowned as a great live band and the fact they play over 250 shows a year (that is seriously going some) proves that they are extremely hard working and have done things the right way. They are getting some great reviews, with Deep Purple calling them "Mind-Blowing" and BBC Radio One and Two giving them airplay. Being liked by Radio One's Zoe Ball wouldn't normally fill me with much confidence but, hey, she's got it spot on this time. I've been blessed to review some great albums this year from Death & Thrash Metal right down to Folk and Blues and Wille And The Bandits are another name to add to that list.
Song-wise, my favourites are 'Got To Do Better', 'Gypsy Woman', the quite beautiful 'Under The Grove', the pretty damn heavy 'Son Of The Gun' and the near thirteen minute epic 'Angel', but nearly all of the songs kick. 'Try To Be Yourself', however, to my ears at any rate, fails to go anywhere and is bland, but one below par track does not a bad album make and, of course, with so many styles of music incorporated on the album it's more than likely that plenty of you will like it.
Wille And The Bandits are renowned as a great live band and the fact they play over 250 shows a year (that is seriously going some) proves that they are extremely hard working and have done things the right way. They are getting some great reviews, with Deep Purple calling them "Mind-Blowing" and BBC Radio One and Two giving them airplay. Being liked by Radio One's Zoe Ball wouldn't normally fill me with much confidence but, hey, she's got it spot on this time. I've been blessed to review some great albums this year from Death & Thrash Metal right down to Folk and Blues and Wille And The Bandits are another name to add to that list.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Self-released
Album
GROW
Review by Rick Tilley
RUNNING TIME:
54:35
RELEASE DATE:
14th Oct 2013
TRACK LISTING
1) Got To Do Better
2) Gypsy Woman
3) Try To Be Yourself
4) Under the Groove
5) Butterfly for a Day
6) Still Go Marching In
7) Why Do You Do It
8) Son of the Gun
9) Keep Moving On
10) Forgiveness
11) Angel
2) Gypsy Woman
3) Try To Be Yourself
4) Under the Groove
5) Butterfly for a Day
6) Still Go Marching In
7) Why Do You Do It
8) Son of the Gun
9) Keep Moving On
10) Forgiveness
11) Angel
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
UK
"...very diverse and should appeal to a wide variety of music listeners."
