Country, bluegrass atmospheres with southern rock echoes – here is the latest treat offered by Red Wine, the historical Italian band founded in Genoa back in 1974. Over the last few decades, Red Wine have taken music from the Southern United States straight to the Italian peninsula. Pickin’ Friends – this is the band’s latest album, recorded with Analogy Records at Zerodieci Studio.
The album, which includes volume 1 and volume 2, takes listeners on a journey across the dusty roads of the Southern States thanks to a musical groove that goes beyond any possible expectations one may have in the light of the band’s outstanding technical skills: every track smoothly flows into the next, involving the listener from the first track to the last. The warm, powerful voices of the band members are sustained by sounds and musical atmospheres that harmoniously combine thanks to a skillful blend of classic country music instruments and original musical innovations. The mandolin and the banjo come together to create sound patterns that express every track’s essence to the fullest, from ballads to up-tempo tracks, while the bass and the guitar warmly embrace them, resulting in a strong, captivating rhythm.
Among the most involving tracks, a special mention goes to Where The Sidewalk Ends, the ride that opens Pickin’ Friends vol. 1 and that immediately reveals the style of the entire album; worth mentioning is also Stealing Peaches, an intense instrumental track in which Silvio Ferretti’s banjo and Marco Ferretti’s guitar offer the perfect rhythmic setting for Martino Coppo’s mandolin to wilfully play wildly.
Two more pearls in the album are the excellent cover version of Nick Drake’s Time Of No Reply, which adds a touch of psychedelic softness, and the oneiric Someone Else’s Dream.
The current line-up, including Lucas Bellotti (bass and vocals), Martino Coppo (mandolin and vocals), Silvio Ferretti (banjo and vocals), and Marco Ferretti (guitar and vocals), has created a double album that is truly up to the expectations and that highlights both the individual talent and skills of each and every member of the band and the strong, dynamite-like sound they make together.
Listen to music samples
1. Where The Sidewalk Ends (Jim Lauderdale, Shel Silverstein) |
2. Buffalo Nickel (Thomm Jutz, Charley Stefl, Jon Weisberger) |
3. Tell All My Pickin’ Friends Goodbye (Chris Brashhear) |
| 4. Time To Learn (Tim O’Brien) |
5. Stealing Peaches (Martino Coppo) |
6. Love You Don’t Know (Brad Davis) |
| 7. Time Of No Reply (Nick Drake) |
8. Saved (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) |
