It is safe to say that, among all the many music genres, the Blues is one of the very few styles of music that stays with an artist forever. It's like a comforting blanket, a window to the soul, a way to interface yourself with your spirituality and this is not our website saying but rather the multitude of Blues artists that our website has had the privilege to meet through the last two decades.
The Italian Harmonica Maestro, singer/songwriter and Grammy-nominated artist Fabrizio Poggi knows for certain what the Blues is all about. He breathes and lives the genre every day on his own skin, he sings, plays and writes about it. Moreover, Poggi's deep love and appreciation of Blues has been universally recognized in every part of the world where the Italian artist has performed through the years and his many talents, including his irresistible power of communication, allowed Poggi to gain the highest respect from his fellow Blues artists and the many thousands of fans he has around the globe.
After 24 studio albums on his belt, it is more than comprehensible for Poggi to take a peek at his own archive and discover some hidden musical gems that, for a reason or another, didn't make the final cut on any of his previous records.
The outcome of this deep search into Poggi's archive resulted into a rather breathtaking record called Basement Blues, where the Italian Harmonica Maestro brought back to life some excellent live and studio recordings that go so far back right to Poggi's 2008 album called Mercy.
Both old and new fans of the Italian singer/songwriter will be hugely pleased of this retrospective record; Basement Blues contains some little live jewels recorded in USA back in 2014 with Poggi's close fellow friend and talented Blues artist that is Guy Davis, alternated with some exquisite outtakes taken from the sessions of albums like Spaghetti Juke Joint, Harpway 61 Mercy and Breath Of Freedom, among others.
In some respects, Poggi's new record constitutes also for the Italian singer/songwriter a sort of walk back to Memory lane, in times when he performed with some of the most renowned and loved American Blues artists, like the aforementioned Davis, Ronnie Earl and Garth Hudson and also with one of the most celebrated Italian Blues guitarists, Enrico Polverari, who still performs with Poggi to these days, either when touring live or recording in studio.
Every song included in Basement Blues is an artistic Polaroid part of a phenomenal sonic Blues photo-shoot of Fabrizio Poggi's career. There is the sound of the Juke Joints, in songs like Little Red Rooster, Your Light, Up Above My Head and Black Coffee (where Poggi gifts the listeners with a stratospheric Harmonica solo performance), or the one of the plantations, in songs like the album's opener Precious Lord and See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.
But there is also another side of Poggi's eternal love for Blues, a more uptempo one, depicted in the songs part of Basement Blues; from one of Poggi's most recognizable hits that is Midnight Train to the infectious foot-stomping instrumental Boogie For John Lee Hooker, Poggi displays just how much he embraces the concept of Blues at 360 degrees, by releasing it through his tremendous artistic talent with grace, soul and exceptional power.
At the age of 64 and through an album like Basement Blues, Poggi has finally allowed himself to look back at his archive, discovering some artistic gems of remarkable quality. While Poggi has always loved to look forward, in every next move of his incredible career, this record suggests that Poggi may have a lot more aces up his sleeves, in his (we believe) abundant archive. If Basement Blues was just the first flavor of it, we are all in for a treat in the next future.
But for the time being, Poggi's new release is the best, most genuine and realistic retrospective of the glorious career of an artist that has been able to transport the Blues into the 21st century with class, respect, passion and incredible craftmanship. To which we say, Long May Continue, Fabrizio Poggi!
Basement Blues is out now and it is available to be purchased at Appaloosa Records.
