From Bedlam to Lenane is an exceptional and unusual bridge that connects Italy to Reinhardt's swing and Robert Johnson's blues. It was built by Francesco Forni and Ilaria Graziano, two Neapolitan musicians with a very respectable curriculum.
He, who has been transplanted to the capital for years, has several solo works to his credit and is one of the most committed to the project of the Roman collective Angelo Mai, “an independent space for the arts” as they define themselves. She, who has already worked with Forni in the live band Rainbow 4et, among other things, has repeatedly lent her voice to the Japanese composer Yoko Kanno.
Like all the greatest folk-blues works, From Bedlam to Lenane tells stories. Stories like that of Tom O 'Bedlam, a character in an anonymous XNUMXth century poem, which in the English tradition represents the prototype of a madman. In the first track, Mad Tom of Bedlam, the two are inspired by Jolie Holland's version, but enrich it with the classic swing structure: the slow exposure of the initial theme. Blues. And after a minute the frenetic upbeat guitar of the colorful gypsy parties.
Led by voices alone and a couple of acoustic guitars, Love sails it has the soul of the best duets of Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell, preserving the swing accent that the album is imbued with.
The Mexican folk song Mixteca song is one of the four that Forni and Graziano "steal" from tradition, together with the aforementioned first track and subsequent classics Be my husband by Nina Simone, remade among many also by Jeff Buckley, and Back , that of Fernando Maldonado and not the most famous work of Carlos Gardel. One might argue that it is an easy way to play something that is already magnificent from the start, but their skill lies in making the album so old-style that original songs and "covers" blend into magic.
The musicality that comes out of the text of La strada it is the added tool, thanks to an experienced interpreter like Graziano. Time, which is pressing more and more, recalls a kind of Greek sirtaki and finally gives us a solo worthy of the inimitable Django.
As in a play, halfway through the disc the actors come forward to present themselves with a monologue.
In Rosaspina (inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairytale par excellence?) Forni tells "the story of a man who comes from afar". It is a perfect blues in E minor: the story, his voice, the metallic slide in open tuning on the strings of what seems to be an old parlor.
All the grace that Ilaria is capable of expressing with her impeccable intonation is manifested in Red missing in the evening, a serenade whose poetry of the lyrics demonstrates the completeness of the two musicians, who hide a boundless talent even as lyricists.
The manouche, carried around by mainly French or Dutch guitarists (see Lagrene, Debarre Rosenberg), appears in an Italian record as a miracle: On y goes it is a more unique than rare pearl. The choruses of Graziano, the Forni technique on the guitar, the goliardic solo of kazoo and the text, a little in French (as tradition requires) and a little in Italian, demonstrates the thesis on the magic of the duo to make a genre its own "Ancient" that has never been too much in the hearts of Italians. In the penultimate original track, the lights on of the Parisian cabarets are dimmed and the two return to divide the stanzas into Crying, a kind of lullaby.
The disc closes with Lenane's Blues, one of the best songs on the album. A very successful attempt at modal blues in which Forni surpasses himself, concluding with a short solo that is a pleasure for the ears. We wished he would have given us more solos, being perhaps one of the best blues guitarists in Italy. We are satisfied all the same, because what he created with Ilaria Graziano is more than satisfactory: a purely acoustic record to listen to to remind us what voice rock had when he was a child.
Thumbs up for: The street, Rosaspina, Lenane's blues
Thumbs down for: Be my husband, Volver
ILARIA GRAZIANO & FRANCESCO FORNI - FROM BEDLAM TO LENANE
TRACKLIST:
1. Mad Tom of Bedlam
2. Love sails
3. Mixtec song
4. La strada
5. Rosaspina
6. Red missing in the evening
7. On y goes
8. Crying
9. Be my husband
10. Back
11. Lenane's blues
