| Blues-Rock |
I remember many years ago photographing Layla Zoe at a festival in France, the kind of festival where the musical and artistic level is often relatively average. When an artist with international stature appears, one is left speechless, as the gap compared to other artists is so great. That was the case with Layla Zoe. Anyone who has seen her on stage knows she’s a force of nature, but personally, it was her voice that immediately fascinated me. Over time, what I anticipated back then has come true—her voice has matured, becoming deeper and gaining in interpretative quality. She places the intonations exactly where they should be, using a measured power. Layla Zoe is better than ever and just as generous with her audience, which is what this album is about, the story of which I’m sharing with you here: In March 2024, Layla Zoe, also known as Canada’s darling of the blues, embarked with her band of ‘road warriors’ on the Into the Blue tour to conquer European stages, as she has done for the past 15 years. But with one difference. During the Into the Blue tour, she divided the concert into two parts each night: a first part with original songs from her vast repertoire (including albums produced by Henrik Frieschlader, Jan Laacks, and independently), and a second part with covers of artists who inspired her in her youth to pursue a musical career.
And what’s really interesting is hearing how she has managed to evolve her older songs. For an artist like Layla Zoe, it’s not enough to just settle for the existing material; an artist like her is constantly evolving, so it’s only natural that her songs evolve too. As for the covers, with Layla Zoe, it’s better to talk about her vision of the songs of the artists she loves, which she covers with grace: ‘War Pigs’ – Geezer Butler/ Tony Iommi/ Bill Ward/ Ozzy Osbourne, ‘Move Over’ – Janis Joplin, and ‘Forever Young’ – Bob Dylan… An absolute delight, and when a jazz expert like me tells you that, it means that such an album cannot leave anyone indifferent, especially since it all ends with a magnificent rendition of ‘Freight Train’ by Elisabeth Cotten.
These live performances that Layla Zoe offers at a few years’ interval are somewhat like a signature of her evolution. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the Blu-Ray on hand to tell you more about it. But given Layla Zoe’s high standards of quality, I think you can invest in the Blu-Ray without fear, because as always, and as is the case here, Layla Zoe offers you a very high-quality album, with mixing that almost makes you forget the live aspect if it weren’t for the applause. It’s also rare to see blues artists stay in touch with album critics, but Layla Zoe, a consummate professional, knows exactly when to send her albums to the press and never forgets anyone. This is rare enough to be noted.
We do very few reviews of the blues scene, as it’s not our specialty, but from time to time when an album speaks to us, we dive in and see it through to the end. In Layla’s case, we are always delighted to talk about her albums, and we regularly classify them, as we do with this one, among our ‘essentials’.
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, August 19th 2024
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Musicians:
Layla Zoe – vocals
Krissy Matthews – guitars
Felix Dehmel – drums
Josh Rigal – bass and backing vocals
Recorded live in Bonn, Germany at Harmonie on March 27th, 2024.
Audio recording, mix and master: Martin Meinschaefer
Video recorded by Moritz Meinschaefer, edited by Moritz and Martin Meinschaefer