I love it when hard work really begins to pay off. I love it even more when that hard work starts to get recognised and the enlightened word begins to spread further afield. It has, in many ways, been a long time coming but because of that, the attention that Danny Bryant’s RedEye Band is now getting tastes all the sweeter.
Of course it is not just hard graft that has given this band their long awaited wider recognition – it is that, ability, and total respect for the blues genre that they grace. With his Black And White album (Rounder Records 2008) surely at long, long last Danny Bryant’s time has finally arrived.
A few years back I first caught up with Danny playing a blues gig in a club in England’s, Essex. I stood mesmerised by the sheer attention he commanded, the total absorption of the audience, the controlled ferocity of some amazing blues guitar licks, and the incredibly exhausting list of upcoming gigs on the flyer that I picked up. I have bought everything by Danny since and have never, for a moment, been disappointed. It is that philosophy of always satisfying your audience no matter how many miles you have just travelled to be there that makes Danny and his band stand out from the pack. That, and a searing blues sound that will have you thirstily needing more like some salivating dog.
With this album he has received reviews that, if the world was a bluesier place, would have been his a while back. Let’s have some background. Danny Bryant’s RedEye Band has been together for nine years. They originate from England but have steadily taken on Europe with regular appearances in Germany, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland and as a result have built a loyal and smugly knowing following. Smug may seem a strange word to use but they can afford to be because they have been sitting on one of the untapped, so far largely unrecognised and best kept secrets in British blues. Along that road he has performed with such names as ex-Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, Mr. British Blues himself John Mayall, Peter Green, Patti Smith, Buddy Guy, Greg Allman, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, and Walter Trout, who duetted with Danny on his last album Days Like This.
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