"Sir" Oliver Mally Group - Tryin' to Get By (2021)

“We may differ in skin color, nationality, religion, gender or worldview. But the color of our blood is always the same ”. The blues legend Luther Allison, who left us far too early, not only insisted on this attitude all his life, Luther also lived it. The message may sound simple, but if you look at our current times of - again - increasing racism, national extremism and marginalization, you will understand how up-to-date the blues and “Sir” Oliver Mally's new album are. When Ian Siegal recites the lines “We got the same blood flowing through our veins” on “Same Blood”, he does so out of the full conviction with which Oliver Mally put this song on paper. There is nothing in it about cliché or ingratiation, rather the empathic attempt to stir things up and do something.

“Sir” Oliver Mally was always one of those who put “doing” before resignation, complacency and lethargy. And so “Tryin’ To Get By ”is tackled with full commitment. The band is tirelessly looking for something new, hardly taking any time to breathe. For this, the “Sir” put together his new group, Alex Meik on bass and Peter Lenz on drums. “I want to stay with this band. Unlike all my other bands, I can jam and tinker with the guys, ”says Mally. And also stood by guests whose reputation, intensity of expression and independence can hardly be surpassed. There would be Ian Siegal on guitar and vocal cord, a soul mate of Mally’s, driven torn, who can create goose bumps with just a few tones. A young “old” friend of the musical Mally tribe, Raphael Wressnig, joins them. The Hammond B3 organist is now one of the most sought-after entertainers and virtuosos on this instrument worldwide. Finally, there is Hubert Hofherr at the harp, who is also a highly emotional master of his art and consequently is now also a member of the band.

From songs like “I Wanna Ride With You”, which even made the Kingston Mines in Chicago tremble, to Mississippi-influenced slow blues like a “Downfall” or Mally's brilliantly staged version of the Tom Waits / Kathleen Brennan cover “Get Behind The Mule ”To the swinging, acoustically playful singer / songwriter style of the title song, the album confirms Willie Dixon's legendary saying:“ Blues is a feeling ”. A record whose musical and emotional depth sets a highly constructive counterpoint, especially in times like these.

The start of the new label Blind Rope Records, in cooperation with the legendary monkey.moods team around Walter Gröbchen, could not have been better.

Dietmar Hoscher