I spent last weekend in Brussels (which I'm going to be doing a lot from now on) and had the chance to catch Kitty, Daisy & Lewis live at the Ancienne Belgique. Great night and a powerful performance. I left the club with a smile and a copy of their brand new CD (it hit the shops less than a month ago) which I'll be presenting here. But first a few words about the concert: What is usually referred to as a "sibling trio" takes on tour the form of a fully fledged R&B revue. I swear sometimes they had more people on stage than the Blues Brothers! Besides the three siblings, constantly alternating between lead vocals, guitars, piano and drums (not to mention banjo and harmonica), there was another guitarist, a bassist, a Jamaican trombonist and the world's most useless string quartet (only really heard on a couple of numbers). Lewis looked like he just stepped out of "Boardwalk Empire" (or some other stylish 20's show) and the girls provided the necessary eye candy dressed in a gold skinsuit (Kitty) and a leather Batwoman/Suzy Quatro outfit (Daisy). Now, I was familiar with the trio's utterly enjoyable debut but hadn't listened to anything recent of theirs. I was pleasantly surprised to see them expand their aural palette beyond blues/rockabilly: "Turkish Delight" and "Ain't Always Better Your Way" are closer to Ska and "Feeling of Wonder" contains a funky nod to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and sports a contribution by The Clash's Mick Jones (who also made an excellent job producing the record). Daisy's "No Action" is another funky number somewhere between Chic and Amy Winehouse - surefire hit material! Opener "Whenever You See Me" has a Nancy Sinatra-meets-Holly Golightly vibe and first single "Baby Bye Bye" by Lewis is calypso jazz with some light and breezy piano. "Good Looking Woman" is a straight Chicago blues with horns and "It Ain't your business" jumpin' rockabilly (My, that Kitty sure blows a mean harp!). "Never Get Back" is a cinematic ballad with prominent strings and "Bitchin' In The Kitchen" sassy soul. The album closes with "Whiskey" (a country song given the R&B treatment) and "Developer's Disease", a Woody Guthrie-ish folk song lamenting the extinction of London's urban character by the intervention of greedy land developers. After listening to this album and witnessing Kitty, Daisy and Lewis's performance, I could almost declare that "A star is born"! Almost, because there's actually three of them...
**** for Whenever You See Me, Baby Bye Bye, Feeling of Wonder, No Action, Bitchin' in the Kitchen
*** for Good Looking Woman, Turkish Delight, It Ain't Your Business, Ain't Always Better Your Way, Whiskey, Developer's Disease
** for Never Get Back
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