Down South Jukin’ : Lynyrd Skynyrd Call Me The Breeze : Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man : Lynyrd Skynyrd That Smell : Lynyrd Skynyrd Midnight Rider : Gregg Allman
The Devil Went Down to Georgia : Charlie Daniels Band Spooky : Atlanta Rhythm Section Blue Sky : Allman Bros Band Southbound : Allman Bros Band Jessica : Allman Bros Band
Bougainvillea : Dickey Betts and Great Southern Can You See : Marshall Tucker Band This Ol’Cowboy : Marshall Tucker Band Hot Nights In Georgia : Jason and The Scorchers
Hotel Illness : Black Crowes Wiser Time : Black Crowes All Over But The Cryin’ : Georgia Satellites Drive South : John Hiatt
Angry Southern : Gentlemen Terrell The Day John Henry Died : Drive By Truckers Easy Money : Todd Snider Shake Em On Down : North Mississippi Allstar Sweet Virginia : Rolling Stones
November 2009
THE MANDOLIN’ BROTHERS
30 Lives!
Fortuna Records
It is, the bluesmen’s own, passion even before the skill and stainless persistence to have brought the Mandolin’ Brothers beyond the finish line of thirty years of activity. To celebrate such effort with a live recording is Spazio Musica of Pavia - one of those places that if in the United States, it would be a small legend per se. Two nights, the 25th and 26th April 2009, warm and applauded, a liberating experience on the wave of music; that kind of music which has made the Mandolin’ Brothers tireless representatives of a roots-rock that even though played just behind the Oltrepò vineyards, manages to meet a world of American sounds somewhere between blues, country, ballads, songwriting, swamp-rock and border songs. The Mandolin’ Brothers play (very well) a delightful and genuine roots-rock which - with the inclusion of Bruno De Faveri’s mandolin and Riccardo Maccabruni’s accordion - was taken from the blues; a never forgotten genre with which the band from Voghera took its first steps thirty years ago. It was the singer, songwriter and harmonica player Jimmy Ragazzon along with the great guitarist Paolo Canevari to have founded the MB; then came the rhythm section of Joe Barreca and Daniele Negro and finally the folk component of the band. After two albums in crescendo, For Real (2001) and the well-acclaimed (by critics and audiences) Still Got Dreams (2008), the MB reach their most convincing evidence yet translating into a contagious live euphoria all their musical journey with sixteen tracks that combine the early blues with songs of Still Got Dreams going through those cover songs which have moulded their rock and bluesmen hearts; or rather - the inspired medley of Dark Was The Night / You Got To Move by Blind Willie Johnson / Fred Mc Dowell and then the touching Almost Cut My Hair by David Crosby, the buzzing Copperhead Road by Steve Earle made even more Celtic-rock than the original and the bursting final of Iko Iko, Dixie Chicken and Troubles No More - a demonstration of how much of New Orleans and Little Feat is in their blood.
But beyond the cover songs, never executed in a standard fashion but rather personalized by a bubbly feeling and a skilful search for arrangement, it is the original songs written by Jimmy boy, Paolo Canevari and De Faveri which determine how certain sounds are embedded in the band’s DNA and how the Mandolins are totally at ease in handling such matter by writing and playing songs that could very well belong to some mature bar boogie band from the overseas. The many awards won by the MB are therefore understood, as it is the reason they won the International Blues Challenge in 2009 and the fact that they will be representing Italy in Memphis in January next year. Clean sounds even when it is the vehemence of execution to drag 30 Lives!, perfect balance between the parties with only one distraction too many in the classical piano at the end of Iko Iko, a thorough measure of tempos and songs like Bombay Skyline, Midnite Plane and Saigon that transpose old travel experience in the on the road diary fashion; the MB show character in that art of street music learned from their legends and their dreams. It is no coincidence that their "manifesto" song carries the title of Still Got Dreams, a dragging rock of Springsteenerian romanticism invigorated by an organ a la Federici, which brings upon a remarkable ability to write beyond the models that inspired them. Models filtered by their personalities and by their thirty years of work on the stages of the Italian province (and beyond) which remain indelible as signature of their passions. So, Went To See The Poet does not hide its love for Dylan, Bombay Skyline for Lowell George, Stompin’ Blues for Ry Cooder, Long Time Ago for The Byrds in the psychedelic-raga-like flavour while in others songs the accordion evokes the Mexican cellars and the slide shakes the Mississippi mud. Derivatives, and is not an insult, but also classy as in the beautiful dialogue between the accordion and the slide in Carton Box and in the gleaming country-rock of Saigon where the piano- virtuosity of Maccabruni and excellent guitars of good Paolo Canevari don’t pass unobserved-the two that are a bit the heart of the sound of the group. 30 Lives! has the features of a live that is worthy of respect, that is, entertainment, ballads, right covers and the rock’n’roll beat; moreover, the Mandolin’ Brothers prove also that they could be a worthy branch of American music in Italy.
Mandolin’ Brothers
Thirty years of friendship and music lived together on stage: The Mandolin’ Brothers celebrate the event with a live album - 30 Lives! -
high heat, which demonstrates the strength of their repertoire and the ability to travel the highways where rock, blues and poetry meet . . .
inserted 30/11/2009
Mandolin’ Brothers 30 Lives!
[Studiottanta Fortuna records 2009]
Crammed into one space, Spaziomusica, which is a small oasis of strength and musical culture, on 25 April this year we assisted to a thirty-year anniversary concert
which did not foresee guest stars nor sequins; a passion whose perseverance per se represents a genuine miracle. There I was, seated on one among those
uncomfortable chairs (but they do so much rock and roll) to follow the long path of Mandolin’ Brothers.
So these few lines may even seem too "compromised" , so emotionally close to that show not to be credible:
let me say instead that 30 Lives! sounds really damn good, a surprise even to those who have been able to listen live.
It’s a very hot live indeed (and congratulations are extended to the recording and production by Massimo Visentin); it captures even those nuances which
have escaped at first, an authentic "Mardi Gras" roots and rock’n’roll, where the guitars of Ry Cooder (listen to the
Paolo Canevari’s magic intro to Dark Was the Night),
the spirits of Lowell George (the ending of Dixie Chicken fading into
Troubles No More and so we have travelled throughout the South), the "travels" of David Crosby
(ten exciting minutes for Almost Cut My Hair ) but above all the songs of Mandolin’ Brothers get justice.
The same one that makes me say that these little grown up guys are, having all things considered, the best roots’n’roll band that can be found
in our province (not very different from the American one - the one we ’ve been talking about all along).
And then their songs alone are more than enough, filled with dignity (and a sound, sometimes dragging) in no way inferior to the more fortunate
(for reasons of geography and myth) American cousins: try with Still Got Dreams, which is a symbol itself entitling their thirty years of musical life,
or better still Went to see the Poet (dedicated to Dylan, who else) and the splendid Scarlet,
to get to the jumping honky tonk blues of Saigon (and an honourable mention to the piano and organ of Riccardo Maccabruni) that dutifully introdces the sarabande-style New Orleans
to close the evening (from Iko Iko to the above mentioned Dixie Chicken).
A test of love, dedication and above all of out-of-the-common good taste. To your next birthday, Mandolin’ Brothers! (Fabio Cerbone)
30 Lives! (intro taken from the cd)
by Marco Denti
"Thinking of a series of dreams
Where the time and the tempo fly
And there’s no exit in any direction
’cept the one that you can’t see with your eyes"
(Bob Dylan)
It is clear from the very first notes that the Mandolin’ Brothers have lined up on stage ready for anything, but that at the same time wanted to be elsewhere. I know the trick well. When Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground echoes back only Paolo Canevari and Jimmy Ragazzon and Peter Guralnick think of Blind Willie Johnson. All others, those who were at Spazio Musica and those who will hear it here, will leave for Paris, Texas immediately. The Mandolin’ Brothers, who have been on the road for thirty years, know that this is a one-way ticket only. So, you can take a Midnite Plane to go and check out the skyline of Bombay, fly to Saigon or to Paris, France riding the accordion and keyboards’ wave of Riccardo Maccabruni or slide into a Copperhead Road (watch out for rattlesnakes though), but before all you have to make up your mind, choose where to go and which side to take, You Gotta Move and it is here where the Mandolin’ Brothers land with the blues, the Rolling Stones, Andy Warhol and hundreds of others of those dreams that only rock’n’roll can offer. Even though it isn’t a concert that can make you forget the troubles of a spoilt world (only because all the newspapers and TV channels have only shown the managers’ boxes while fleeing the crisis and disasters that they themselves have caused, but never ever spared a single word for those who spend a life in those boxes), it takes courage to sing Almost Cut My Hair, which by the way-thanks to the guitars of Bruno De Faveri-sounds even more rebellious today than then, and Carton Box with the bass of Joe Barreca which will drag you into the bowels of the earth. It is understandable then that David Crosby, Steve Earle and Ry Cooder are not only the cornerstone of the concert, but stages of a journey, fragments of a portrait, akin spirits, part of a world that the Mandolin’ Brothers and everyone at Spazio Musica and whoever else lives on rock’n’roll creates and recreates every day and every night, an identikit which shape becomes clear only after years & years & years: yes, time is on our side because the time stops only if dreams don’t; in here many more of those dreams linger, but the Mandolin’ Brothers don’t fool around with dreams either because one can dream of winning the lottery or becoming the president (good luck), but dreaming of living inside Waiting For Columbus is something so elegant and original that no one even notices that it is a dream because they are playing Dixie Chicken seriously after Daniel Negro’s drums had began Iko Iko as if Pavia, London, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Paris, Texas-where it all started-stood on the same parallel, a line (red and boiling hot) that connects all the geographical points we have in our heads and makes it a place to live a little better.
Watch out, though, with the Mandolin’ Brothers one travels (as Sam Shepard would put it) "from one place to another. But the action is in the middle."
There, the action is in here, from the very first note of the slide to the last word of Muddy Waters; it is not as much the one of a rock’n’roll band that plays
(great, by the way), but that of a rock’n’roll band that goes on dreaming. One cannot escape from it.
Still Got Dreams. Dreams appeal to responsibility. Turn up the volume. Close your eyes. Have a good trip.
The Mandolin’ Brothers are one of the best Italian roots bands. I believe that there are little doubts about this.
Considering that, as in this case, the opportunity to trot them out is such an important anniversary can’t but further please to
ascertain that the passion and friendship that have been animating the band
(founded by Jimmy Ragazzon and Paolo Canevari) for thirty years - and I repeat, thirty - keeps on growing as the seasons go by.
"30 Lives!" is a live album,
recorded in two evenings of April at Spazio Musica, Pavia. It’s a heartfelt and warm embrace of the band to those who
have been following them for all this time; among their own tracks, you’ll find covers of David Crosby, Steve Earle, Blind Willie
Johnson and McKinley Morganfield - including rock, country, blues, and lots and lots of feeling.
To the next thirty!
January 2010
Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary with a live album and a great desire of America
When they started three decades ago, they would have been happy to survive for few seasons,
to satisfy a whim taking a handful of applauses and take home a suitcase full of dreams.
Instead, here they are, still here, alive more than ever with many dreams that came true (they’ve also gone to play in Memphis, Graceland and Beale Street
included, imagine that!); behind them a wonderfull job as Still Got Dreams and now a live that summarizes their history and their influences:
blues, country, rock and more - but always signed America, the one of their heroes which, with a bit of provincialism, they try to emulate.
They’ve learned to play and play well when they hit hard on pieces of Muddy Walters, Blind Willie Johnson, David Crosby or Steve Earle,
and when venture into their own compositions (must mention at least Midnite Plane, Scarlet, and by now classic Still Got Dreams).
One could very well wonder about how many young people have the Mandolin’ Brothers brought near to this wonderful music during their concerts,
and this alone would already constitute an enormous merit, but it should also be taken into consideration the obstinacy and passion that led them
to become a professional band able to compose and play at a good level. Listen well to this 30 Lives! and enjoy an overview of an entire musical world,
the very world that from the mid 60’s onwards has given so much freshness and an extraordinary sense of freedom.
Roberto Caselli
Mandolin’ Brothers - 30 LivesROOTSVILLE CD REVIEW i n t h e o r i g i n a l l a n g u a g e
Euro Americana Chart Reporter
March 2010
Er valt heel wat te zeggen bij deze liveplaat van de Italiaanse Mandolin’ Brothers.
Niet alleen is het behoorlijk ongebruikelijk dat we hier muziek te horen krijgen van Italiaanse bluesbands,
maar als ’t dan al eens zover is, dan ergeren we ons nogal vaak aan de eerder schabouwelijke uitspraak van het Engels
(zo’n beetje het Joe Dolce-syndroom van "Shadappe you face") en aan het epigonisme dat Italiaanse bands al te vaak tentoon spreiden.
Niks van dat alles hier: het door de wol geverfde zestal draait al mee sinds 1985 (!!) en heeft, dat is er aan te horen, bijzonder veel
live gespeeld. Op deze live doen ze een pak nummers uit hun jongste studio-cd (Still Got Dreams), aangevuld met enkele bijzonder fijne
covers en wat valt daarbij op? Om te beginnen valt, primo, op dat de plaat in Pavia opgenomen is en dat er dus Italiaans gesproken wordt
bij de bindteksten. Dat valt des te meer op, omdat het Engels van zanger Jimmy Ragazzon misschien niet helemaal vlekkeloos is, maar alleszins
zo goed als vrij van accent is.
Opvallend secundo: de ongelooflijk straffe instrumentenbeheersing: de gitaren huilen wanneer gewenst,
de mondharmonica klinkt vies, vuil en wettig, de ritmetandem Joe Barreca/Daniele Negro bouwt een solide muur,
waar de anderen zich moeiteloos staande kunnen tegen houden, de slide van Paolo Canevari lijkt bij momenten op het beste
van Sonny Landreth en…opvallend tertio . . . de rol die weggelegd is voor de mandoline van Bruno de Faveri en de accordeons van
Riccardo Maccabruni en Stefano Cattaneo. Dat laatste laat zich het best gevoelen in de stomende cover van Steve Earle’s
Copperhead Road en in het afsluitende swampy trio (die Dixie Chicken zit er echt wel plat bovenop!) en het is precies dat wat
deze plaat zo feestelijk en onweerstaanbaar maakt. Deze gasten kunnen een song tot de hunne maken (die bijna elf minuten
Almost Cut My Hair!!!!), ze geven hem een klank mee die je niet gewend bent, maar die je wel een beetje platwalst.
Ik heb ook de vorige studioplaat in huis, maar die is bij lange niet zo overtuigend als deze liveplaat van een bende,
die, wat mij betreft, deze zomer nog de tocht naar het koude noorden mag maken en ons mag komen verblijden met hunbijzonder fijne mix van roots,
blues, country en rock. OK, ik geef toe: deze gasten doen niet veel nieuws, maar wat is er verkeerd met een band die evengoed Crosby, Waters,
Earle, George als Jagger in huis blijkt te hebben? En toch . . . die mandoline . . . ’t is iets heel bijzonders bij deze gasten.
U moest toch maar eens gaan luisteren, denk ik . . .
(Dani)
Mandolin’ Brothers - 30 LivesROOTSVILLE CD REVIEW i n t r a n s l a t i o n
Euro Americana Chart Reporter
March 2010
There is a lot to say about this live album of the Italian Mandolin’ Brothers. It is quite unusual to hear Italian blues.
As we can be quite often annoyed by the bad English pronunciation proposed by Italian bands singing in English, this is not the case - based on their
live performances. They take many songs from their last studio CD (Still Got Dreams), supplemented with some very fine covers.
First thing to say is that the live cd is recorded in Pavia and therefore whatever we hear in between songs is bind to be Italian.
The reason for that could be perhaps that the English of the singer Jimmy Ragazzon is not entirely flawless, a thing that can be dismissed
entirely when related to his singing - without any perceived accents.
Secondly, the incredible pain management tool: the guitars cry if desired,
the harmonica sounds dirty, dirty and legitimate, the rhythm section of Joe Barreca / Daniele Negro builds a solid wall, where others can easily
come to a complete stop, the slide of Paolo Canevari seems at times the best of Sonny Landreth . . . and thirdly, striking . . .
the role that Bruno De Faveri’s mandolin play and the accordions of Riccardo Maccabruni and Stefano Cattaneo.
The latter is best felt in the steamy cover of Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road and in the final trio Swampy (Dixie Chicken, which is a really top!)
And this is exactly why this record is so festive and irresistible. These guys can take a song (almost eleven minutes Almost Cut My Hair !!!!)
and make it theirs; giving it a sound that you are not used to. I have the previous studio album at home, but it is not as convincing
as this live album. In my opinion, this band just may make the trip this summer to the cold north and may come and rejoice us with some fine mix of roots,
blues, country and rock. OK, I admit, these guys are not proposing anything new, but what’s wrong with a band as good as Crosby, Waters, Earle,
and George Jagger that comes close to your home? And yet . . . the mandolin . . . it’s something very special for these guys.
You should go and listen to them, I think . . .
(Dani)
What a beautiful feeling to open the mailbox and, instead of finding more bills to pay, you run into the new Mandolin’ Brothers CD. Thirty years of career celebrated with a live CD recorded at Spazio Musica of Pavia. Honestly, after that Italian masterpiece of Still Got Dreams, I feared for this release. Instead, I found myself with a highest level work, very well executed that grabs you straight from the start.Cooder, Little Feat, Dylan, but I would say all American music is a guest in this 30 lives. I say a guest because the absolute protagonists are they,Mandolin’ Brothers, with their personal sound and a very well perceived desire to play.
Jimmy sings with a voice that you scrapes off the synapses, Paolo is one of those guitarists who understood that there’s no need to do a thousand notes,
but that the feeling suffices, the rhythm section of Daniel and Joe is an assurance, Bruno alternates between the guitars and the mandolin embroiders sounds
that blend perfectly with the band’s sound and then there’s the young Riccardo that with the hammond, piano and accordion gives the all that swamp
of Louisiana sound. You absolutely must listen to this album that opens with Muddy Waters and Paolo "Cooder" Canevari who prepares the entrance
of the band. 15 perfect songs with peaks of absolute level in Still Got Dreams, which if it had been written by Ligabue it would have sold million copies,
in the finals of Iko Iko and Dixie Chicken, through Stompin’ Blues, Almost Cut My Hair and one Copperhead Rd which seems performed by Fairport Convention
of Richard Thompson. For those who haven’t seen them at Rootsway Festival ,a must see event; for who presented, the event witnessed a memorable evening.
I recommend you come here in our Bassa, take one of those roads that run along the river Po and put the CD at full blast and these guys
(well, let’s talk about it . . . ) will take you on a thrilling "on the road" journey .
For those who wish to buy the CD visit their website at: http://www.mandolinbrothersband.com. If you say that you have read the review by Rootsway group, you will receive a guitarist’s hat.
Good listen!
Antonio Boschi
March 2010
April 2010
Extract from the blog
"The Red River Shore"
by Paolo Vites
Saturday, December 26, 2009
I t a l i a n s
The Mandolin’ Brothers - I certainly did not discover them, as they’ve been on stage for over thirty years. "30 Lives!"
is a live celebrating the great anniversary: country-rock vibrations with California of the 70s in the hearts for a cd recorded with excellence.
Almost all are original songs plus fancy covers such as Almost Cut My Hair.
daniela bonadeo (30-11-2009)
After having discovered them with the previous excellent album "Still Got Dreams", with this new effort the Mandolin’ Brothers
reconfirm themselves as the best Italian roots-rock band. A live which does not make regret the more popular ones from overseas,
with a judicious mixture of covers and original tracks. From blues to ballads via New Orleans, with the never banal lyrics and a thrilling lead vocal.
Would recommend to all lovers of classy rock, true, thrilling and lived.
Rating: 5 / 5
