[…] Opening with RL Burnside’s, Goin’ Down South the group conjurs the feeling of Mali and Ali Farka Touré. Very nice. Another Burnside track, See My Jumper Hanging On The Line maintains a really rural feel with gritty guitar work and earthy vocals. Muddy Water’s Rollin’ and Tumblin’ is tom tom heavy with acoustic slide and authentic vocals.

Otha Turner’s Station Blues really keeps in line with Turner’s roots with ancient slide sounds and snare drum accompaniment behind Tia’s vocals and Sharde’s fife. Very nice. With a more modern hip hop/jazz feel, Tia shows excellent vocal phrasing over a much more contemporary light sound. Cameron Kimbrough’s Gonna Love You has that classic North Mississippi sound with it’s loose guitar soloing and Hooker like vocals. Excellent! Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Shake ‘Em On Down has a great rudimentary feel with rhythm guitar drive and slide guitar flash. Very cool. Wrapping the release is Highway 61, played in the most raw form imaginable and with falsetto vocals over the sounds of cars and trucks on the road in backing.

This is really a terrific release and one to catch!

By BMan. Read the full review on BMan’s Blues Report. 

« On this week’s Undercover Country podcast, we reveal the identity of the mysterious ‘Silver Yodeler’, we play a re-telling by arguably, Ireland’s greatest storyteller, Eddie Lenihan, some German country and a blues group fronted by a viellist! » i.e. Gilles Chabenat and Hypnotic Wheel. Their Muddy Gurdy album blends into Dylan Fitzgerald’s very interesting playlist, mixing « odd and unusual country music from around the world ».

Listen to Glory Glory Hallelujah with Shardé Thomas at 43:30.

Digital Blues, in the U.K., brings every week « tracks from more new arrivals »… and gave Muddy Gurdy a spin: Going’ Down South’, Hypnotic Wheels playing with Cedric Burnside —and the dogs barking in the background.

The section starts at 19:00.

With the review at 27:52: « A track from a CD which I played last week, which I am loving. It is called Muddy Gurdy. It’s three French musicians playing, as they say: When French hurdy gurdy meets the North Mississippi Hill Country blues, featuring Cedric Burnside, Cameron Kimbrough, Pat Thomas and Sharde Thomas. These very different interpretations of some very well know songs. »

There are records that you discover by pure chance… on the internet. And this is maybe one of the few positive notes that I personally find in the arrival of the web in the music world: being able to have access to artists who otherwise would have been almost in our country unknown, alas. Here is a record that, for its beauty and its originality, deserves to be listened to. It is, without a doubt, among one of the best blues album that has been produced these days. […]

Ci sono dischi che scopri per puro caso… nella rete e forse questa è una delle poche note positive che trovo, personalmente, nell’avvento di Internet nel mondo della musica: poter aver accesso ad artisti che altrimenti, nel nostro paese, sarebbero stati pressoché sconosciuti, ahimè. Un disco che per bellezza e originalità merita di essere ascoltato e senza dubbio annotato fra le cose migliori che il blues abbia prodotto in questo periodo. […]

Perhaps the greatest merit of the project is the humility with which this collaboration has been done, without any musician ever wanting to overdo it. […] Fifteen pieces, ranging from traditional songs like Glory Glory Hallelujah, to songs written by the Americian artists involved, such as the wonderful That Girls Is Bad by Burnside or songs that have made the history of the blues like Muddy Waters’ Rollin ‘and Tumblin.  […]

Forse il merito più grande del progetto è l’umiltà nel collaborare nell’incisione, senza voler mai strafare. […] Quindici pezzi che vanno da branii tradizionali, Glory Glory Hallelujah, a pezzi degli artisti americani coinvolti, come la stupenda That Girls Is Bad di Burnside, ma anche a brani che hanno fatto la storia della musica blues come Rollin’ and Tumblin’ di Muddy Waters. […]

The record exudes passion and skill, intense but not easy. The songs are often long sessions with a signature groove and hypnotic sound, with percussion on the shields. The touch that the hurdy-gurdy gives to the whole album is the extra present. The fusion of two traditional musics does not distort them. On the contrary, they are improved, giving us the greatest result obtained by the French combo.  […]

Un disco che trasuda passione e bravura, intenso ma non facile. Le canzoni sono spesso delle lunghe sessions che fanno del groove e del suono ipnotico il marchio di fabbrica, con le percussioni sugli scudi. Il tocco che l’hurdy-gurdy dà a tutto l’album è davvero la marcia in più, la fusione di due musiche tradizionali che non si snaturano ma. anzi, si migliorano, regalandoci il più grande risultato ottenuto dal combo francese. […]

If you love quality blues and jazz, you might fall in love with this intense sound, absolutely recommended. Good listening.

Se amate il Blues e il Jazz di qualità, potreste innamorarvi di questo sound intenso, assolutamente consigliato. Buon ascolto.

By Claudio Trezzani. Read the full review (in Italian), on Inesistenti. 

We all know that blues has a baby and that’s rock ‘n’ roll. But the blues has another kid and called it « Muddy Gurdy ». Where did it come from now? The story starts in France, inspired by a trio playing under the name of Hypnotic Wheels. […]

Svi znamo da blues ima dijete i to je rock ‘n’ roll. No, blues ima još jedno dijete i nazvali su ga « Muddy Gurdy ». Od kuda sada to? Priča ide iz Francuske, poticana od trija koji djeluje pod nazivom Hypnotic Wheels.  […] 

This French trio, composed by Tia Gouttebel (guitar, vocals), Gilles Chabenat (hurdy-gurdy, a traditional French instrument) and Marc Glomeau (percussion) traveled to Mississippi. And this incredible album was born. […]

Ovaj francuski trio u sastavu Tia Gouttebel (gitara, vokal), Gilles Chabenat (Hurdy-Gurdy – to je tradicionalni francuski instrument) i Marc Glomeau (udaraljke) uputio se na mjesto zločina i otišao na deltu Mississippija i tu je nastao ovaj nevjerojatan album.  […] 

We come to realize that the blues surounds us, that the blues is alive, real and ubiquitous. Standing in the middle of my room I am overwhelmed by Station Blues. […]

Razlog je jednostavan: slušajući razne prezentacijske forme bluesa, dolazimo do iskonske spoznaje da je blues svuda oko nas, on je itekako živ, on je stvaran i sveprisutan. Stojim u sredini svoje sobe slušam « Station Blues ». 

The music is inspired by what the legendary blues musicians RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Othar Turner and James « Son » Thomas left us, and by what their are descendants, Cedric Burnside, Shardé Thomas, Cameron Kimbrough and Pat Thomas are now doing. They give the whole story authenticity. But to me personally it is somehow this French trio, Hypnotic Wheels, that gives some kind of « mojo » to all the songs.  […]

U ovom glazbenom stilu osjeća se ta tradicijska glazbena baština, koja zrači onime što su radili legendarni blues glazbenici RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Othar Turner i James « Son » Thomas a sada to čine njihovi potomci, Cedric Burnside, Shardé Thomas, Cameron Kimbrough i Pat Thomas. Da, oni su dali cijeloj priči autentičnost, no meni osobno se nekako čini da je upravo ovaj francuski trio, Hypnotic Wheels, svim pjesmama dao taj osjećaj, taj « mojo ». 

All 13 songs will win you right away. The atmosphere, the relaxed style will bring you to your knees. I am still standing in the middle of my room and I simply cannot believe what I am hearing. This is just like blues. This is deeper and stronger than traditional blues.   […]

Svih 13 pjesama osvojit će vas na prvu i taj ugođaj, taj opušteni stil prezentacije mora vas baciti na koljena. Još uvijek stojim u sredini svoje sobe i naprosto ne vjerujem da to čujem, ovo je kao iskonski blues, ovo je dublje i jače i veće od tradicionalnog bluesa.

It is so « damned » good!  […]

To tako « prokleto » dobro!

By Mladen « Mike » Loncar. Read the full review (in Croatian), in the Sound Guardian‘s Blues Corner. 

 The blues world is an interesting place –both because of the musicians who make the music and the diversity of sounds that emerge when different musical styles seemingly collide. The latter’s the case for this different and extremely interesting production, which combines some of the biggest names in North Mississippi Hill Country blues with a trio of Europeans who’ve melded French folk music with the American sound they’ve come to love.

Muddy Gurdy is composed of a trio who reinvented themselves after a successful folk career in France under the moniker of Hypnotic Wheels. The unit includes Tia Gouttebel on guitar and vocals, Marc Glomeau on percussion and Gilles Chabenat, who provides vocals in addition to playing the hurdy-gurdy, the instrument that provides half of the band’s name. […]

“Tia In The Rocking Chair” opens the set, and is exactly as titled: 46 seconds of peace, quiet and the sound of Gouttebel rocking gently in her seat on a porch. It’s a great mood setter for R.L. Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South,” which follows. From the first notes of this one, you realize quickly that this trio understand their medium and deliver it with great feel. Chabenat’s hurdy-gurdy mimics guitar lines in a warm, haunting manner as he trades licks with Gouttebel’s guitar atop a repetitive drum pattern. Gilles and Tia share vocals, and the hurdy-gurdy adds new, deep sounds to the traditional feel.

The instrument takes on the air of a violin as Cedric takes to the mike for his uptempo original “That Girl IS Bad,” which would keep folks up and moving on any juke dance floor, driven by syncopated drum patterns and his acoustic runs on slide. He also handles vocals for dad R.L.’s “See My Jumper Hanging On The Line” and Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ And Tumblin’,” delivered much like the acoustic 1940s original, but taken to a different level because by the hurdy-gurdy sound.

Fife and drum master Otha Turner’s “Station Blues” is up next, aided by granddaughter Sharde. Her voice graces his one as well as her own “Shawty Blues,” a moving ballad about chasing a dream but being misunderstood by the older generation, and a hurdy-gurdy and fife-powered take on the traditional “Glory Glory Hallelujah,” delivered in Hill Country style.

Cameron Kimbrough’s at the mike next for a cover of his original, “Leave Her Alone,” which has a more modern feel with him on electric guitar, and a droning take on granddad Junior’s “Gonna Love You.” Pat Thomas, son of the legendary James “Son” Thomas, joins the action for his ballad “Dream” before Tia holds her own on vocals for an uptempo cover of Jessie Mae Hemphill’s “She Wolf,” Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Shake ‘Em On Down” and Charles Singleton’s “Help The Poor” before a 3-minute, 45-second outro entitled “Highway 61,” which includes sounds of crickets, traffic and a solitary singer/picker delivering “Standing At The Crossroads,” brings the disc to a close.

If you love Hill Country blues, you’ll love this hour-long CD, which is available through most major retailers. The two art forms combine seamlessly and the production will have you feeling like you’re kicking back with the musicians on a warm summer’s eve. If you prefer your tunes urban and electrified, however, this one is definitely worth a listen but might be outside your comfort zone.

By Marty Gunther, in Blues Blast Magazine, about Muddy Gurdy, Hypnotic Wheel’s second CD. Read the full review.