Reviews roundup – Viva Trio vs. Gitaron vs. Scottie Miller Band

Reviews roundup – Viva Trio vs. Gitaron vs. Scottie Miller Band

VIVA TRIO
Nothing Else Matters
independent

I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Classical crossover sopranos. You canny whack it.

This time around it’s the Viva Trio from over there in the Canadian colonies who#re having a bash. Now to someone like me, who still listens to Eden every week this is a real treat. Soprano Anna Bateman, mezzo-soprano Erin Fisher, and soprano Katya Tchoubar are excellent singers and get to grips with a wide variety of music from Sia to Metallica as well as a couple of original songs. The original songs are very strong and don’t seem out of place in amongst numbers like ‘Nothing Else Matters’, ‘Wicked Game’ and ‘My Immortal’ which are the standouts on the record.

For me it’s a real shame they’ve tackled my two least favourite songs of all time – ‘Imagine’ and ‘Hallelujah’ but for some bizarre reason they’re the kind of things that make people go a wee bit moist. That aside, this is a welcome addition to the world of classical crossover.

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GITARON
You Own The World
independent

Gio Smet aka Gitaron isn’t messing about as he’s just clobbered me about the head with a triple album of heavy metal! Yes, really, a triple album. To be fair, the third disc is a multimedia thingymajig with musician bios, photos, flyers and all sorts of gubbins. And fair play for being ambitious. I’d rather a musician aimed for the sun, regardless of any Icarus type results.

And that doesn’t happen here as there is some very enjoyable metal on offer here. Most of it tends towards the power metal side of things and to bring the music to life he’s brought in an assortment of guest musicians with half a dozen different vocalists putting in an appearance on the likes of ‘Camelot Rising’, ‘March of Immortals’ and ‘Flame Of Hate’. Which are proper titles for heavy metal tunes! For sure, not every song is out of the top drawer but the first disc of all new material is particularly good. The second disc is his previous “Mental Visions” album but with some rerecorded vocals and guitars.

I can’t help but tip my hat to someone willing to go all the way and Gio Smet certainly does that.

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SCOTTIE MILLER BAND
Stay Above Water
independent

I was sitting here earlier in the week trying to work out what my favourite blues album of the year was. It’s tricky because it’s been a particularly good year. I seem to have been playing Elles Bailey, Lew Jetton, Scott Ellison and Krissy Matthews on a loop for months now. But then I popped this into the CD player and straight away we had a new contender.

Because this is absolutely fabulous. Pianist, singer and songwriter Scottie Miller has been on the go for absolutely ages, and this is his tenth album. Which is impressive considering his other gig involves playing keyboards and mandolin with Ruthie Foster (who pops up on one of the songs here). So he’s a busy fella. But here, singing and playing his own songs, he’s in his (and my) element. His band are completely in sync with him as he rolls out some boogie woogie, New Orleans, southern soul and rhythm & blues. Mind you his own band have been playing together for seventeen years now, so it’s not really surprising that they hit a sweet groove with ease. Things get even better when a funky horn section pops up hither and thither.

He’s got a great voice and there isn’t a bum track on offer. Which makes it hard to pick favourites. However, ‘It Better Groove’ is my favourite song of the year, bar none. This is essential listening for fans of the blues. Buy it now.

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