Artist: Babaux and The Peacemakers
Album: Moments In Time
Release: 2023
Babaux and The Peacemakers are a Colorado based roots band with a significant blues influence. This new album Moments In Time is the follow up to their critically acclaimed debut Lucky 13 and there is absolutely no hints of a sophomore curse here. The latest effort is a ten song set that is a well written and produced album. The vocals are 100% unique and quite gritty, making for a fantastic listen across the whole of the record. It has moments where it feels influenced by Led Zeppelin. Not so much in performance, but in the writing and arrangements. Like their last record, it is difficult to call it blues. However, it is also impossible to ignore the deep roots of blues running through the entirety of the release.
The album opens with Always Be Mine, which has jangly acoustic guitars supporting a vocal take that is somehow familiar while being unlike anyone I have heard before. The song is rooted in everything that is cool about southern roots music. It has a pocketed groove and some spit, but is still lazy in all the right spots.
A standout track is Lucky Ones. It has the familiar sound that is embedded in the DNA of this band with a bit more twang. But not quite country twang. It reminds me a bit of some of The Kinks more obscure and grossly underrated tracks from the mid 70's like Celluloid Heroes. It's a song that brings lots of regional sounds together under one umbrella. It has hints of old Nashville before the current glitz, mid 60's London, Bob Dylan influenced Greenwich Village of the same time period and Macon, Georgia as the southern rock bands left the clubs to become legends.
Lady In Black is a fantastic Zeppelin like song. It has a Traveling Riverside Blues meets In My Time of Dying feel to it. By no means is it a carbon copy, but possesses the same spirit and love for the blues coming through the next generation without losing its growl and slippery nature. Wonderfully driving drums take it from standard acoustic blues into the rock realm where it takes on its own identity.
In so many ways Babaux and The Peacemakers feel like a southern rock band. Not in the way that those bands featured extended guitar leads and lots of jamming, but in a Curtis Lowe kind of way. It is soulful and bluesy, but open to outside influence and expanding on the blues vocabulary without losing its original intent. There aren't many bands that are as unique as this outfit. It sounds old school and mature but fresh and vibrant simultaneously. I highly recommend checking out this new album as well as their first release Lucky 13. They would be perfect bookends for a record collection that consists of The Kinks, Bob Dylan, The Black Crowes, The Stones and Keb Mo. If you like soulful acoustic roots rock that was baptized in the waters of the blues you will undoubtedly love Babaux and The Peacemakers!
Band Members:
Vocals and Dobro: Christian Basso (aka Babaux) Guitar: Eric Martinez Alana Velvis: Drums Nick Velvis: Bass
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