The Bear Root Sheiks – Rhino & The Alligator
Self-release – 2024
14 tracks: 57 minutes
Rhino & The Alligator is the debut album from an acoustic blues duo known as The Bear Root Sheiks. The Bear Root Sheiks are Rainer Brunn (guitars, vocals, and mandolin) and Al Lindinger (guitars, vocals, harp, and bass drum). According to their one-pager, these bluesmen are veterans of the German blues scene with successful solo careers.
According to his website, Rainer Brunn began playing blues and folk music at the age of seventeen eventually studying classic guitar and then gradually coming back to acoustic blues. Brunn also has a successful online guitar tutorial series through YouTube and a strong following on Facebook. Lindinger’s webpage says that he has “decades of experience in various blues styles, captivating audiences with powerful slide guitar pieces, or delicate Ragtime picking, or solemn blues ballads.” He has also made a name for himself as a songwriter…mostly for his dialect pieces, but also for some of his instrumental pieces, which are played on popular (German) radio stations.
The Bear Root Sheiks primarily concentrate on their interpretations of country blues classics of the 20s and 30s, along with some Piedmont-style blues, and a little Ragtime for fun.
The debut album was arranged and produced by The Bear Root Sheiks and recorded, mixed, and mastered at Low Tide Studios in Deuerling, Heimberg (Germany). Andreas (Al) Lindinger was responsible for mixing and mastering, and he has songwriting credits for four original songs along with one hybrid number.
Rhino & The Alligator kicks off with a spirited version of Big Bill Broonzy’s “Hey, Hey,” featuring solid vocals and terrific finger picking. The German duo keep things hopping with Tommy Johnson’s classic “Canned Heat Blues,” that late 1920s lament on the evils of drinking Sterno. Other blues classics receiving The Bear Root Sheiks unique interpretations, include: “Key to the Highway” and Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Got to Move.” Lindinger’s harp shines through on “Key to the Highway” and the haunting rendition of “You Got to Move” complete with traditional Delta blues slide play is definitely a highlight of the album.
“Drop Down Mama,” the “Sleepy” John Estes classic and inspiration for Led Zeppelin’s “Custard Pie,” is superbly reproduced with Rainer Brunn’s expert mandolin picking—reminiscent of Estes West Tennessee partner, James “Yank” Rachell—and the duo’s melodic harmonizing. Robert Johnson’s “Malted Milk” receives equally superb treatment with intricate guitar work much like the original. Piedmont blues and Ragtime are alive and well on Blind Boy Fuller’s “Rag, Mama, Rag,” featuring, once again, some sweet slide guitar.
“What’s the Matter With the Mill?” by Memphis Minnie (Lizzie Douglas) rounds out the cover tracks with great fingerpicking and more of those melodic harmonies.
Of the album’s original songs, instrumentals “Big Bear Root Blues” and “Schnuggi Rag” showcase The Bear Root Sheiks at their country blues best. Finally, “Oidboch Bursch” is a fusion piece—sung in German—based on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Mississippi Kid.”
On their website, The Bear Root Sheiks talk about taking their listeners on an entertaining and colorful journey through the history of the blues…transporting (the listener) to a world full of hardship and worries, but (one) in which people still had time (for) one another.
That’s a wonderful sentiment to a time and place that eventually changed the modern musical world, forever. And Rhino & The Alligator is a testament to a pair of outstanding musicians.
