Daddy’s Work Blues Band & Giotis Kytarris – Blues Machine
Self-Released
www.daddysworkbluesband.bandcamp.com
9 Tracks – 44 minutes
The Greek based Daddy’s Work Blues Band has been around for over a decade, releasing their initial album, First, in 2022. The band members’ relationship goes back to their teenage years playing around the suburbs of Athens. They played in many festivals in Greece and have supported performers like Louisiana Red, Doctor Feelgood, and Martin Turner (ex-Wishbone Ash). The band consists of Dimitris Doulgeridis on electric and acoustic guitars, Stathis Anestis on electric and double bass, Efthymios Polyzos on drums, and Giannis Pachaidis on harmonica.
Like the band, Giotis Kytarris is an Athens based musician and tattoo artist. He has lived as a busking musician wandering many years in Europe and America. He studied the works of Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters, John lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf and others in learning his craft. He has shared the stage with many Greek performers and with luminaries like Louisiana Red and Nick Gravenites. He sings and play slides with guitars, including cigar box guitars, that he builds himself.
Giotis and the band have met many times on the stage and jamming together. Their chemistry led to the idea of recording together based on Giotis’ Blues and Roots material.
Dimitris takes the lead vocal for the opening track, “Baby’s Got the Train”. The band comes out hot with upfront slide and the Giannis’ harmonica immediately kicking in as he sings “my baby has left me all alone” and he begs her “to come back home”. This is a high energy start for the album. Giotis takes over the vocals starting with “Barrio”, which has a jug band sound and a feel of southwest Texas with references to San Antonio. Giotis provides some nice slide guitar work on the song. “Blues Machine” as he asks, “see that my grave is kept clean”.
“By The Highway Side” starts with an ominous tone with vocals again by Dimitris as he notes that “I cannot rest my spirit as I am looking at the long road”. Giotis returns on vocals on “Danger (You Mean)” with Giannis harmonica crying through the song. “Iced Moon” moves to acoustic guitar and Giotis asks “would you die for me; I would die for you”.
“Lockdown” is a jumping rock number with a hoedown feel. Cony Efthimaldi guests on vocals on “Love of My Own” which is cited in the liner notes as an arrangement of Michael Powers’ “Graffiti” with spoken word content from Amy Winehouse’s “Me & Mrs. Jones”. The song is a pleasant pop concoction but seems out of place with the rest of the album, which is solidly locked into blues rock. The album concludes with “Tell Me Mama” and adds George Stefanakis on Hammond organ as Giotis says “tell me baby what you want, don’t play with me honey”.
The band’s instrumental work is phenomenal with power strokes on every guitar lead, strong harmonica leads and robust backing rhythms from Stathis and Efthymios. Giotis’ vocal delivery reminds me of Mick Jagger’s vocal style. The sole downside I have with the album is that I sometimes I found the lyrics on a couple songs to be somewhat abstract and hard to follow. Even after listening to the songs repeatedly, I could not discern the ultimate meanings. Ignoring that, the overall sound of the album is enjoyable and not deterred by the deep dive on the lyrics.
