Paul Camilleri - One Step Closer (2011) [CD Rip]

Paul Camilleri is an Englishman with a Maltese name and Lebanese roots. Since 2004, his trio has established an outstanding reputation as an energy-driven and equally soulful power act, bringing down the houses at hundreds of concerts throughout Germany, England and Switzerland, some in support of the likes of Status Quo, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Popa Chubby and Eric Burdon & The Animals.

Over the next two years, Paul and his band played to more than 70,000 people and racked up lots of airplay in Switzerland – something not so common these days for an act with its roots in the blues tradition. In Germany, his songs could be heard on various radio stations, and WDR2 even voted his record «Best Album Of The Week» in June 2005. The recording of his performance at the WDR Rockpalast 2004 festival was broadcasted on WDR, Swiss TV and 3 SAT on different occasions.

Then Paul Camilleri recorded his fourth album in England. These catchy rock’n’blues tracks were produced by Francis Rossi, the lead singer and guitarist of Status Quo fame. All 13 tracks are completely dedicated to the spirit of rock and blues – nine of them were penned by Camilleri & Rossi, two were written by the successful songwriting duo Rossi/Young. It's worth mentioning the following quote by blues luminary and living legend John Mayall which just about sums up the atmosphere that Camilleri and his band create night after night when belting out their unique style of rock'n'blues to audiences all over Europe: «Paul and his band rock. An exciting blend of blues and rootsy rock'n'roll – go for it!» Quite a compliment considering the amount of guitarists and acts John Mayall has seen in his lifetime …

The fifth studioalbum („just what you wanted“) was a collaboration with Pete Brown, who in the 70 ties was working with the supergroup Cream and was lyrically responsible for worldhits like „sunshine of your love“, „white room“ and many more. So after collaborating with big names from the international music scene, the time was right to capture the band’s own sound: Paul completed his sixth album after many hours of jamming with his band. The most catchy riffs and energetic performances found their way onto „One Step Closer“ : passionate, powerful and intense blues & rock at ist best, sometimes reminiscent of acts like Led Zeppelin, ZZTop and Lenny Kravitz.