Love, Guns and Money

Love, Guns & Money Reviews

Real Roots Cafe Reviews

Bianca DeLeon, Love, Guns & Money
(Review November 2011)


Dat Bianca De Leon iets heeft met ons Nederland is te zien op de achterkant van de fraaie verpakking van haar nieuwste CD, ‘Love, guns & money’. Bianca staat voor een (school)bord, waarop een concert wordt aangekondigd: ‘Vrijdag 21 november concert. De Texaanse troubadour, Bianca De Leon, from the USA’. Een paar jaar gelden, ergens in ons land. Op de nieuwe CD, inmiddels via haar website te bestellen, is Bianca in grootse vorm. De opname is live in de studio gedaan door de basisband met alleen overdubs voor sax, dobro en achtergrondvocalen en opnieuw inzingen van Townes’ ’Nothin’. En met ‘Nothin’ hebben we het over de enige cover(s) op de CD, een bijna 7 minuten durende medley van twee klassiekers: ‘Nothin’ en Hank Williams’ ’Ramblin’ man’. De overige nummers (9) zijn van Bianca zelf, waarbij het prachtige ‘I sang Patsy Cline’ als bonus track terugkomt in een ‘extended version’. De muziek is een prachtige mix van Texaanse border ballads, countrywijsjes, Tex-Mex en een vleugje rock. De band is helemaal Austin: The Flyin’ A’s zijn er met Stuart op ritme gitaar en Hilary in de harmony vocals, een rol die ook is weggelegd voor Tim Curry. John Inmon (bekend van zijn werk met o.m. Jerry Jeff Walker en Jimmy Lafave) bespeelt elektrische gitaar en Spaanse gitaar, Radoslav Lorkovic is de geweldenaar op piano, B3 en accordion, David Carroll speelt zijn staande bas en Paul Pearcy drums en percussie. Incidentele bijdragen zijn er van The East Side Flash (dobro) en Donny Silverman op sax. In de prachtige beeldende teksten passeren indrukken van onderweg, verloren en gewonnen vriendschappen, zoals in één van de mooiste nummers, ‘Stale (bedorven) wine and roses’: ‘Stale wine and roses, all that remain of a dream that waltzed through my heart in the springtime and left in the morning train’. Hoe beeldend kan beeldend zijn.

Bianca De Leon heeft haar magie nog lang niet verloren en bewijst met deze prachtige ‘Love, guns & money’ dat haar muziek tot het topsegment van de Texaanse muziekwereld behoort. Ga eens luisteren naar een aantal nummers van deze CD. (Fred Schmale)


Bianca De Leon has been a staple in the Netherlands for quite awhile, as you can see from the back of the attractive packaging on her new c.d. “Love, Guns & Money”. Bianca is in front of a blackboard where a concert is announced “Friday, Nov 21 concert, The Texas Troubadour, Bianca De Leon from the USA, from a few years ago, somewhere in our country. Bianca is in fine form. The recording was done live in the studio with her band with overdubs only on sax, dobro, and background vocals, and main vocals on Townes’s “Nothin”. The only cover(s) on the c.d. are the medley of two classics: “Nothin” and Hank Williams “Ramblin Man”. The other numbers, nine in all, Bianca wrote by herself with the beautiful “I Sang Patsy Cline” as an extended play bonus track on the end. The music is a wonderful blend of Texas border ballads, country tunes, Tex-Mex and a touch of rock. The band is totally Austin: The Flyin A’s, with Stuart Adamson on rhythm guitar, and Hillary Adamson and Tim Curry on harmony vocals. John Inmon (known for his work with Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmi La Fave) plays electric guitar and Spanish guitar, Radoslav Lorkovic, virtuoso on piano, B3, and accordion, David Carroll play upright bass and Paul Pearcy on drums and percussion. The East Side Flash plays dobro on two songs and Donnie Silverman plays sax on one song. The lyrics evoke beautiful visuals of the stories, friendships lost and won, as in one of the most beautiful songs, “Stale Wine and Roses”, “Stale wine and roses, all that remain of a dream, that waltzed through my heart in the springtime, and left on the morning train”. How visual and expressive.

Bianca De Leon has held her magic for a long time and proves it with this beautiful “Love, Guns & Money” that her music belongs in the top of Texas music. Go listen to some tracks from this c.d. (Fred Schmale)

 

BIANCA DeLEON
Loveove, Guns & Money
(Lonesome Highway - 4 STARS)

Her fourth album features a photo of her standing in front of a Dutch club’s chalkboard that reads ‘de Texaanse Troubadour Bianca DeLeon.’ If her name isn’t high on your list of Texas singer-songwriters, or doesn’t even appear on it, this is most likely because, until a recent life-altering health scare softened her stance, she long disdained playing for Austin’s pitiful rates and went where people valued her art, which means she’s much better known in Europe than in Texas. Like David Rodriguez, DeLeon is rooted in and lives in two different worlds, the Texas-Mexico borderlands in which she was born and raised, and which, in my experience, few Anglos seem to be able to write about convincingly, and the national and international singer-songwriter venue circuit, so, again like Rodriguez, she’s a bit different from your average troubadour. How many of them could write I Sang Patsy Cline (“the night Noriega fell’)? As always, DeLeon travels first class, with backing by guitar great John Inmon, Radoslav Lorkovic on piano, B3 and accordion, The East Side Flash resophonic guitar, David Carroll bass and Paul Pearcy drums, on a set that includes a song in Spanish, Buscando Por Ti, a honky tonker, The Bottle’s On The Table, striking observations on love and loss, Independence Day, This Time and Silence Speaks Louder Than Words and ends with a medley of Townes Van Zandt’s Nothin’ and Hank Williams’ Ramblin’ Man.

John Conquest – 3rd Coast Music Magazine

Bianca DeLeon: Love, Guns & Money
Summer 2011

Texas singer-songwriter Bianca DeLeon continues to add colors to her artistic palette as she excavates memories and examines life lived to the fullest on her latest album, Love, Guns & Money.

“Estoy buscando en el rio/en el fondo de mi ser/en el pasaje de la vida…”

On this, her fourth release, Bianca’s songwriting has matured like a firm, ripe fruit, glowing with life, filled with textures and flesh and juices. You can bite into these songs, tear the flesh with your teeth, and feel the juices running down your chin.

“Do you really believe the saints you wear/can be bought and sold in blood?”

The scars that greed and corruption leave on humanity (“Guns and Money”), the scars that love and loss leave on memory (“Stale Wine and Roses”), the glow of love (“Garden in the Sun”), the pain of loss (“Buscando Por Ti”), the bitterness of betrayal (“Independence Day”), the bafflement of abandonment (“Silence Speaks Louder Than Words”), the poetic dissonance of global living (“I Sang Patsy Cline”)—these are the subjects of an artist who can stand up and sing Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’” with authority and hard-earned credibility—as Bianca does on Love, Guns & Money. Then she makes explicit the pairing of her mentor Townes with his spirit guide Hank Williams by boldly pairing “Nothin’” with Hank’s “Ramblin’ Man.” A gem.

“The bottle’s on the table/and time’s standing still/The memories he left me/now wander the room at will”

The reality of the legend “Recorded Live in the Studio in Austin, Texas,” is the proof in the pudding. You could imagine that putting musicians of this caliber in the studio for a day would have good results—but this recording is magic. The music is stellar, the mood shines like the moon. The telepathic brilliance of Radoslav Lorkovic (piano, organ, accordion) and John Inmon (lead guitar) gleams. Bianca’s voice smolders, hovers, strikes, lies down with you, stands up to you, strokes you, pierces you, and makes the whole recording the strikingly personal experience that it is.

“Time is an enemy/that strikes in the night/leaving you old and grey/Love is a potion/that blindfolds the eyes/to the sorrow and the pain”

Beautifully written, arranged, played, sung, and packaged—and beautifully lived—with Love, Guns & Money, Bianca continues her reign as the “border outlaw queen,” and she makes a solid, serious bid for record of the year.

— http://robertearlhardy.com/On_the_One.html


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