Roots Combo

At the head of the Roots Combo, Arnaud Fradin displays his legitimacy to sing the blues by fully recognizing the weight of history. The songs he borrows from Skip James, Robert Johnson, Eric Bibb, Muddy Waters or Luther Allison evoke the refusal of fatality (Don't Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down), tell the social fracture (Hard Time Killin' Floor) , demand tolerance (I Can't Judge Nobody), affirm love (Good Morning Love) and celebrate the inalienability of freedom. The great quality of this collection is due to the ability of the Roots Combo to reach the universal. By asking Igor Pichon's double bass and Richard Housset's drums to dialogue with his voice as with Thomas Troussier's virtuoso harmonica, Fradin ventures onto timeless ground that no one has trodden with such force since the album "Folk Singer" by Muddy Waters, enhanced by the acoustic guitar of Buddy Guy and the double bass of Willie Dixon. But Fradin and his Roots Combo are not content to combine country purity and urban truth. From the first to the last note of this collection of pearls, they brilliantly detail the entire journey of the blue note: from Africa, evoked in an evocative Steady Rollin' Man by Ali Farka Touré, to the creations of new generations: a strong tribute to acoustic bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart (Big Mama's Door), as well as a borrowing from young bluesman Nathan James (Walk with Your Maker) which reminds us that blues and gospel are two sides of the same coin. We should also mention the telescoping that sees the Combo revisiting in the manner of Lightnin' Hopkins a love hymn signed Buddy Guy (Don't Leave Me), and what is the most beautiful surprise of a collection that does not lack it , a magnificent rereading of I Get Lucky by the brilliant JB Lenoir. Arnaud and his band manage to give back to the blues a too often forgotten dimension, that of hope, the blues being above all an antidote against pain. And if the notes that we will discover here all carry their share of gravity, each of these interpretations resonates like a hymn to life.