Description
2017 Blues Blast Music Awards Acoustic Blues Album of the Year!
Nominated as Blues Album of the Year and Best Acoustic Artist!
Plated and pressed by Quality Record Pressings
Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Fiona Boyes is an earthy force of nature. Her gravelly vocal timbre is straight out of the red dirt of the Outback. No swishy blues affectation, here. Professin' the Blues proclaims Fiona Boyes' passion for the blues as she celebrates the unique contribution of recording and mastering engineer 'Professor' Keith O. Johnson, Reference Recording's Technical Director and audio legend.
In her self-penned and illustrated liner notes Fiona makes the declaration, "'Professor' Keith's amazing approach to capturing sounds, mostly with his own hand-built equipment, is nothing short of sonic alchemy."
The majority of the songs here are written by Boyes. She's influenced by Delta Blues with a little Caribbean thrown in. For the most part, the songs are paired down to the nub. Voice with guitar, with sundry percussion — once in a while, drums and bass make an appearance. Of course, this instrumentation appears on many blues albums, but Boyes has a way of drawing in the listener into her stories. It's very intimate, very personal. Like Bille Holiday and Bessie Smith, Boyes takes you on her journey.
From the wonderful liner notes, Boyes seems to have a made a BFF in Johnson, the engineering alchemist of Reference Recordings. He's the reason why each Reference release with his imprimatur is awaited eagerly. His magic appears on this album from the very beginning.
