STEVEN TROCH
 

CD review 'Nice 'n' Greasy' in Blues Matters issue 103 
https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/57103/page/98?term=troch

ERIKSSON DELCROIX

CD Review of "Riverside Hotel"
WasteMyRecords with Munich Records and V2 Records

For Blues Matters sent to Iain 8 Feb 2019.

This is a thing of beauty. Bjorn Eriksson (gtrs, vcs) and Nathalie Delcroix (vcs) rank among Belgium’s finest artists. They can always be found in Americanaland, but in this particular instance they’ve immersed themselves chin-deep in  Louisiana – tunes, lyrics, additional sound effects, instruments, and a double helping of Cajun French to complete the picture. ‘Riverside Hotel’ is the couple’s fifth album in as many years, with seven new compositions and three full-blooded Cajun traditional. The disc kicks off with the up-tempo ‘Louisiana Hot’, with Nathalie Delcroix’s high, crystal-clear voice being sustained by a pounding rhythm section which is in complete harmony with the accordion and sharp guitar chops. It ends with chirping crickets, allowing the listener to visualize Louisiana and the swampy, hot location of the Riverside Hotel. Similar local sounds are spread all over the record. There is something compelling, repetitive about this track – akin to the Mississippi blues buzz drone. This discrete thread holds everything together and eventually defines the pattern, in this case an almost haunting atmosphere – as in ‘Elizi, Ursule, Erzulie-Ge-Rouge’.  Still, this is a happy, at times funny album you can sing along with or dance to.
It is remarkable how all the instruments (the duo chartered an extra six top musicians!)are interwoven on each track, whether authentic Cajun (‘La Dance de Mardi Gras’) or rockin’ blues (‘Flat Earth Blues’),resulting into a homogeneous sound. Equally remarkable is that Ericksson wrote the lyrics after a trip to the Deep South with this drummer Alain Rylant.
A truly authentic and professional piece of work.

Eddy Bonte  
 

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