Artist:     Blue Moon Marquee

Album:     Bare Knuckles & Brawn

Label:     Self- released

Release Date:     7.19.2019

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Here’s another in the long line of duo releases this year although the five guest contributors who play on most tracks make this sound more like a band outing. Blue Moon Marquee is a Canadian Gypsy blues duo with all original material. They are A.W. Cardinal (vocals and guitar) and Jasmine Colette (bass/vocals). The guests are Darcy Phillips (keys), Gerry Cook (sax/clarinet), Jimmy “Hollywood” Badger (drums), Jack Garton (trumpet), and Paul Pigat (guitar): some of not only Vancouver’s best but Canada’s best roots musicians. All tracks were recorded to 2-inch tape using vintage RCA microphones to produce the warm sound.

Cardinal describes the sound on this, their fourth full-length album, as “a mixture of swing styles of music like blues and jazz, Western swing and New Orleans. Think Django Reinhardt/Charlie Christian meets Tom Waits.” So, as you can glean it’s mostly a vintage sound, augmenting their customary duo live approach with a larger ensemble. Cardinal’s vocals will evoke Tom Waits right away on the opening track, “Big Black Mamba,” inspired by the Native legend of the big black snakes pulled from the ground (oil).

Like “Big Black Mamba,” many of the song topics are not the typical subjects found in vintage music and it’s this aspect that gives them a contemporary edge. “Hard Times Hit Parade,” sung by Jasmine Colette, is about greed and trying to survive in the ever-increasing wealth gap. “Big Smoke” is about climate change while “As I Lay Dying” speaks to feminism and the end of patriarchy. “High Noon” is a reference to Black Elk, a holy man of the Oglala Lakota peoples, and perseverance of Native Peoples. More typical is “52^nd St. Strut,” as Colette plays tribute to Billie Holiday while the horns swing away.

When the heavily decorated duo plays throughout Canada, the US and Europe as they’ve done for the past five years, not surprisingly, they sound like a bigger ensemble. Colette is a one-person rhythm section playing upright bass, with her feet on the kick drum; snare and high hat while singing. The gruff Waits-like vocals of Cardinal are punctuated with swinging jazz/blues guitar. A listen to “Wayward” may be the best example to help envision them in a true duo setting.

Blue Moon Marquee has harnessed the best of vintage music that’s practically a century old and brought it into modern times. It’s part haunting, part joyous, and sneakily infectious.

—Jim Hynes