Still Moving

Adams has long been a bold and adventurous serial collaborator but this album with Mauro Durante – leader of Italy's premier taranta and pizzica band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino – ranks among his finest achievements. The opener ‘Dark Road Down’ starts with a haunting desert blues guitar motif that swiftly turns into a ZZ Top boogie before Durante sings a keening melody on which the zephyrs carry the chants of the Maghreb across the sea to the heel of southern Italy. There are traditional Italian work songs (‘Amara Terra Mia’) and old Carter Family favourites (‘Little Moses’) as well as original compositions on which the duo create a heady Mississippi-to-Mediterranean blues trance with influences as diverse as garage rock and avant-garde contemporary classical thrown in for good measure. Adams’ prowess as a guitarist is well known but what surprises here is the emotional power of his deep, bluesy voice, which suggests he learned a thing or two about singing during the years backing Robert Plant. Durante's higher tones offer a potent foil, while he conjures thundering rhythms out of a simple frame drum and executes a series of fiddle/electric guitar duets with Adams that are alternately fiery and filigree. One of the albums of the year.