Bon Bon

Somewhere in the polyglot roots garden, twined between Cajun, indie-folk, R&B, Gypsy jazz and a few other things, reside Dai Price and his band of merry Ramblers. They ramble with self-assured, all-acoustic abandon on Bon Bon, the band's second album. Price writes most of the material, which ranges from the traditional country dance-inspired ‘Middle of the Night’ and the Django-esque ‘Blue Bear’ to the foot-stomping blues of ‘Don’t Want to be Loved'. An especially exultant take on Sister Rosetta Tharpe's gospel boogie-woogie, ‘Up Above My Head’, serves as the lone cover among a dozen tracks. Price's vocals and guitar are accompanied by double bassist Rupert Gillett of the London Klezmer Quartet and Alan Dunn (Loudon Wainwright III, Richard Thompson) on piano and accordion, and Bob Loveday (Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra) on fiddle.
The linchpin in this sweet cool mess is Price's mellow, dulcet-toned voice, an instrument capable of dark forcefulness and languid tenderness, conjuring up the mercurial spirit of a young, full-throated Alex Chilton.