Frank Declercq, aka DC Snakebuster, is a one-man band/blues musician who hails from Tildonk a small village located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant near Wespelaar. This is an unusual album in that not only does DC play all the instruments at the same time, as well as playing vocals, but the producer decided everything would be recorded in one take! Consequently, we have a modern blues album which sounds uncannily like Canned Heat at times, yet also feels very close to early electric blues. For me this isn’t someone sat in a professional recording studio but in a hotel room while Alan Lomax sorts out the recorder.

The album closes with “Baby Please Don’t Go”, the song popularised by Big Joe Williams, but which I will always associate with Ted Nugent. His ‘Double Live Gonzo’ had a huge impact on me in the Seventies, but I actually preferred the version he first recorded with The Amboy Dukes in 1967. This is quite reminiscent of that, full of passion, life and emotion but without the bombast. DC said “It’s not easy to create a full sound as a One-Man-Band without extra hi-tech. My recordings are recorded live and raw in the studio… with no overdubs or frills. What you hear on the album is what you will hear me playing live. In the studio there were mics all over, not only for the instruments I was using but throughout the room, on the ceiling even in an old crappy banjo and so on. He was looking for that special sound, I think we found it.” I think he’s right.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/DC-Snakebuster-597099953782539/
https://mrrmusic.com/