Cascade Blues Music Reviews Oklahoma Credit Card Kinzel & Hyde Music Review Index

Music Review Reprint from the
December, 2002 BluesNotes
By Greg Johnson

• Busy Bootin' Too Many Drivers
• (Gimme) Somethin' Fried
• Got My Eye On You
• Mess With My Bread
• Lonesome LaLa
• Can't Lose What You Never Had
• Boogie In The Dark Revisited
• Live High (Spaghetti Western)
• Ode To Rockinitis
• Muddy Tribute
• Northern Town
• Too Many Drivers
  

    For the past several years, Stu Kinzel and LynnAnn Hyde have been the acoustic champions of roots music in the Northwest. Always displaying a flair for approaching their material with deftness and historical clarity, they have consistently taken on their personal challenge of showcasing traditional sounds with stellar results. Though they are usually found offering performances in an acoustical duet setting, it surely does not mean that they cannot kick it up when they have the notion. And, kick it up they do with this latest sampling.

    Kinzel & Hyde are joined in their electric foray by outstanding local musicians such as John Beyer and Gary Herman trading off on drums, while Landon Selig and Steve Adams handle duties on bass. LynnAnn's harmonica has never sounded so on the spot. It's consistent throughout the CD, with exceptional notice to songs like "Can't Lose What You Never Had," a wonderful slow-Blues piece that pierces right to the spine, and it's quite spirited on the instrumental break during "Ode To Rockinitis," a song that also features a nice Little Walter feel in front of a rhumba pattern working to that break.

    Stu Kinzel's guitar work is awe-inspiring, very much at home on the electric as on the acoustic. His feel on "Northern Town" is beautiful and the drive behind "Mess With My Bread" is spellbinding. Guest vocalists Megan James and Lily Wilde, two of the area's most adept musicians, definitely bring their best form forward on their contributions. Wilde on "Something Fried" is lively and fun and then she turns in a smooth, sultry mix on "Live High." James' voice is gorgeous on "Northern Town," working very nicely alongside LynnAnn's concertina. This is also quite noticeable on the traditional Louisiana piece "Lonesome LaLa," which has become a staple of all Kinzel & Hyde performances.

    LynnAnn Hyde and Stu Kinzel have put together an exceptionally pleasing album which displays their enormous talents in stellar fashion. It doesn't matter if you like electric, acoustic, traditional or roots Blues — this one has it all and deserves to be heard. Easily one of the best local releases of the year. Pick it up!

© 2002 Cascade Blues Association