Check out this great review of my latest record "Sweet Revival"! Sweet Revival provides the listener with a burst of creativity and fantastic mixture of new blues styles for today’s listener in quest of a unique fresh sound.- Mississippi Blues Club Gino Matteo says he wants “to let people all the way in.” In other words, the Southern California-based singer-guitarist-songwriter is keen on having listeners form their own emotional responses to the heartfelt lyrics and mixed-genre music on the nine original songs on his first Rip Cat album, Sweet Survival — and second overall. He seeks accessibility and does so without compromising the creativity, the integrity and the intensity that set him apart from workaday recording artists who parade long-tired cliches. Matteo, to his credit, wants no part of the same old rootsy thing. As Sweet Survival makes clear, the blues proudly exists in Matteo’s DNA, but that doesn’t mean he’s servile to that idiom of American music or any other. In addition to honest blues feeling and technique, he brings intelligent, grown-up rock and traces of funk, r&b and gospel to his surprising, enterprising music. An uncommonly good electric and acoustic guitarist as well as persuasive lead singer, Matteo is also a melodist and a conscientious crafter of lyrics. Free of pretense and affectation, the words to his songs often articulate his cathartic responses to a depressing time in his life when things weren’t going right — a condition everyone can identify with. Indeed the songs, especially the non-preachy, appealing opener Here Comes the Lord, cut to the heart of personal perseverance. Allowed by Rip Cat to follow his muse without restrictions and co-produce the album with guitarist Joey Delgado (of Los Angeles’ popular Delgado Brothers band), Matteo shines one track after another with his in-the-studio emotional “rebuilding process” and his secure way with “perpetuating positive energy.” Among the talented colleagues helping him out are harmonica player Jason Ricci, keyboardist Dave Kelly, and singer Jade Bennet, who’s his wife. Matteo’s background in blues and roots music is solid, a strong foundation for his personalized mixed-style music of today. He’s highly regarded on the European blues club and festival circuit — he’ll be back there in November — and he’s played at leading stateside galas like the Doheny Blues Festival, alongside the Pacific in Dana Point, California, and the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. He’s worked numerous North American clubs, including Kingston Mines in Chicago. Impressively, the native Californian has played with everyone from B.B. King, Shemekia Copeland, and John Mayer to Kid Ramos, Little Willie G., and Guitar Shorty. In addition to funk/jam band gigs these days, Matteo performs in an acclaimed duo with his wife. They also share a band. mississippibluesclub/?p=2951
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 23:50:52 +0000
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