Erwin Helfer - Celebrate The Journey - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Nightfist - The Epic [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/04/2003

In the Chicago Blues piano tradition, each player developed his own personal style, from Jimmy Yancey to Albert Ammons. Erwin Helfer's style and his compositions are his own. His playing and personality are honest, straightforward, and committed to strong personal connections, on the bandstand and off. On Erwin Helfer Way, Helfer plays solo, and he is also joined by some of his closest collaborators including Barrelhouse Chuck, John Brumbach, William Bugs Cochran, Lou Marini, and Skinny Williams. This disc is another masterpiece by Helfer, who is the last living link to the Yancy's.

It Can Be Done! Is an album of new beginnings. Kendl Winter left the successful Bluegrass group the Blackberry Bushes to tour the country as a solo act, walking her banjo into dark bars, smoky music halls and packed amphitheaters night after night. It's also full of intimacy. With a voice that is marvelously unique and bold, and songs that are both classically poetic and rooted deep in her own experience, Kendl draws upon an old-time Americana and bluegrass bent that brings to mind the haunting vocal work of Karen Dalton and Gillian Welch.