ONE DROP IS PLENTY - '11 (FXCD 369)

New CD with the duo Knut Reiersrud and Mighty Sam McClain:

"ONE DROP IS PLENTY"

Put Knut Reiersrud and American blues and soul legend Mighty Sam McClain together and what do you get? You get a combination of top artists from two chapters of the history of blues and soul music. The one chapter is about a singer who has "lived the blues" from the day he ran away from his Louisiana home at the tender age of 13 and has been on the road ever since. The second chapter is the story of how blues music has reached several generations in Europe through R&B and rocks, creating a truly unique playing style among countless guitar players, each of whom have sought the musical roots of their idols. One of the foremost of these in our time is Knut Reiersrud. In Norway, we tend to forget that he is a world-class guitar player who has created a band sound and style that has captured attention and sparked enthusiasm at home and abroad.

Countless European bands are able to outplay many bands from the home of the blues on the traditional blues instruments of guitar, drums, bass and keyboard. But when it comes to that true blues and soul voice, they have trouble finding a singer with the genuine authenticity that is vital to all music, and this is particularly true for a genre that deals with the shadier and seedier sides of life. On "One Drop is Plenty" we get to enjoy an excellent band from Norway fronted by a singer whose voice embodies the man who has seen it all, and that missing authenticity has been found, with a quality that excels.

In addition to Reiersrud the musicians include Andreas Bye (drums), David Wallumrød (keyboards), Nicolai Hængsle Eilertsen (bass) and Bjørn Holm (guitar). Most of the songs have been created by Knut Reiersrud and Mighty Sam McClain. The lyrics, 4 of which were penned by Knut's longtime co-conspirator Jeffrey Wasserman, are about being on the road of life and its many phases, and about the strange and wonderful ways of love, whether we are talking of love between man and woman or in relation to more existential questions.

The CD has been produced by Knut Reiersrud and Erik Hillestad and was recorded and mixed in Oslo by Christian Engfeldt.