Fiona Boyes Blues In My Heart CD

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the April 2021 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Guitarist and singer/songwriter Fiona Boyes is the only Australian ever recognised by The Blues Foundation in Memphis, earning 8 Blues Music Awards nominations. She was the first woman and non-American to win the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Her international following has propelled her recordings to the top of blues charts.

Blues In My Heart is a remastered 20th Anniversary edition of her debut solo album, originally released in 2000 in Australia only. It includes Fiona's diary-style liner notes, photo memories and original folk art in a single CD package. Fiona is joined on this album by bandmates Karen (Kaz) Dalla Rosa (harmonica); Gina Woods (piano); and Paula Dowse (drums and percussion).

Quoting Fiona, "Blues In My Heart is an acoustic album of finger­picking ragtime blues... the 16 tracks capture a unique performance moment, much like the historical recordings of the early players I so admire."

This is Fiona's fourth release on Reference Recordings®. Her 2018 album Voodoo In The Shadows brought her multiple awards and nominations, including 2019 Koko Taylor Traditional Blues Female Artist of Year; Music Victoria Award Nominee - Best Blues Album; and 2019 Australian Blues Music Awards Nominations for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Artist of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year.

And her previous Reference Recordings release, Professin' The Blues, received the 2017 Acoustic Album of the Year award from Blues Blast Magazine and countless superb reviews.

In 2000, Australian singer, songwriter, and blues guitarist Fiona Boyes recorded Blues in My Heart, a collection of acoustic fingerpicked ragtime blues, including ten originals and a half-dozen covers by Rev. Gary Davis, J.B. Lenoir, and Leadbelly, among others. Boyes has since garnered a boxful of awards and shared the stage with such legends as Bob Margolin, Hubert Sumlin, and Pinetop Perkins, to name a few. Now, Grammy-nominated engineer Joseph Carra has remastered her auspicious debut. Boyes lends a loose, sassy flair to these songs - check out the defiant attitude she bestows upon Kid Bailey's 'Rowdy Blues.' Boyes' vocals and picking are the driving force here, and her big Matan dreadnaught is close-miked to accentuate the foot stomps, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and string bends... this dynamic remaster bristles with detail to produce an intimate, energetic experience.