CD REVIEW
Inventive mix of blues, rock and pop
The "Heavy Hitters Acoustic Project" is the acoustic offshoot of the Australian blues rock band "Vdelli". The four musicians around the charismatic singer, guitarist and bandleader Michael Vdelli present the really good debut album "A Little Bit Closer" from 2016 on their current European tour.
The bandwidth of the "Heavy Hitters" ranges from blues and jazz to rock and pop. In addition to Michael Vdelli's own songs, which he rearranged for the acoustic project, the band's repertoire consists of covers of songs by Tom Waits, Mick Jagger/Keith Richards and Tony Joe White. Among them are harder rock numbers ("'Nuff Your Stuff", track 1; "Never Going Back", track 11), but also slow, melodic ballads ("Times Like These", track 6). The album's 15 tracks (total playing time almost 56 minutes) generally live from Michael Vdelli's impressive rough voice, which he uses to howl, crackle or even roar as needed, as well as the remarkable guitar passages (Michael Vdelli, Marc Raner). A tip: Vdelli's version of Tony Joe White's "Rainy Night in Georgia" (track 15), which shows his vocal range.
Thanks to Jörg Lehn (Volksfreund/RP Online)
