French alternative rockers The One Armed Man are in love with the Seventies rock (Led Zeppelin, T-Rex) mixes with Americana, folk and blues. Their new full-length Black Hills is a grab bag of songs that somehow quite fill well together: hard rock guitar in Where the River Flows and The World Is On Fire, country rhythm and bottleneck for Black Swan, acoustic blues for the instrumental Lullaby segueing into the harp driven lead single Cold Rain.
Who would have thought that the French could dot convincing "roots" rock album? A track like Even Say Hello could be their ticket to blues festivals all over the world, a slow song leading up to glorious shouting match between the vocalists and the twin guitars.
The One Armed Man:
Pierre Vasseur: guitar, vocals
François-Xavier Laurent: bass
Colin Schaub : drums, backing vocals
Loïc Haas: guitar
Frédérique Boulanger: keyboards
Black Hills is through Flying Cow Productions. Release date: April 22.
Tracks:- Night Train
- Mad Season (feat. Dirty Deep, Ludovic Coudert)
- Where the River Flows (feat. Elise Humbert)
- Black Swan (feat. Julie Malette, Ludovic Coudert)
- Summer Knows (feat. Saori Jo, Elise Humbert)
- Back Home
- Lullaby
- Cold Rain (feat. Dirty Deep, Ludovic Coudert)
- My Own Gold
- White Tulip
- Even Say Hello
- The World Is On Fire (feat. Arthur Corpart)
- July (feat. Vincent Bidal, Elise Humbert, Ludovic Coudert)
- 04/22 Le Cheval Blanc (free show), Schiltigheim, France
- 04/24 Au Bistro, Sainte-Savine, France
- 04/25 Le 114, Paris, France
- 05/10 Festival Ch'Appelles, Mulhouse, France
- 05/17 La Popartisserie, Strasbourg, France
- 05/20 L'elastic bar, Strasbourg, France
- 06/07 Festival International de Musique Universitaire (FIMU), Belfort, France
- 07/26 Festival Pic Sonne, Valloire, France
- 09/20 Le Bar de la Paix, Contrexeville, France
- 09/26 Le Repère, Schirmeck, France