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Artist
Nicole Hart & Anni Piper
5+ albums
female vocalistbluesFemale Guitaristblues rock
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One of the more delightful CDs I've encountered in a long time features the pairing of singersNicole Hart & Anni Piper on their new CD,Split Second (Blues Leaf Records). It's more primal and earthy than I expected, with both singers possessing strong voices that harmonize extremely well together. The creative heads at Blues Leaf struck gold when they decided to team up existing labelmates Hart, who is from Florida, with native Australian Piper. The backing band of Ron Rauso (guitar), Juke Joint Jonny (acoustic guitar, dobro), Sandy Mack (harp), John Ginty (organ, piano) and Sim Cain (drums) is solid, complimenting the vocals well but never taking the spotlight away from Nicole and Anni, the latter who doubles on bass guitar. The disc starts with our two co-stars harmonizing on a mid-tempo funky number, "Can't Let You Go," that features timely percussion work from Cain and a hot organ solo from Ginty. "Clap Your Hands" is a frantic number that sounds like it could have come from the Ray Charles songbook, especially with the retro sounding guitar and organ work from Rauso and Ginty, but instead was done originally by Memphis Slim. This one smokes! The mood changes considerably on the third cut, "Ain't Nobody Watchin'," with a slow, dirgelike blues original written by Piper whose raw, breathy vocals come in after Mack's harmonica intro. Piper also takes the vocal lead on the ultra-cool Roy Orbison number, "Dream Baby." Hart gets her own chance to break men's hearts with Sugar
