In the News
The Size of Your Shoes
Tony D (Independent)
It takes a lot of nerve to abandon the relative security of a high-quality backing group (and a Strat with a powerful amp) and make some acoustic music, but Ottawa's Tony D has never been short on nerve.
And this record also proves those excellent sounds he's been making all these years aren't the result of gimmickry. Recorded live in the studio, no overdubbing, just "bareback" guitar picking on fat old acoustics, Size of Your Shoes shows, if anybody really needed showing, that, in the blues, Mr. Diteodoro holds his own against anybody out there.
The record starts with a bang with My Baby So Far, played as a wicked duet with John Mooney, and from there goes from strength to strength, with songs like D's own Up jump Blues, to another duet (this time with Ken Hamm) on Robert Johnson's Malted Milk, to an almost unbelievable acoustic rendition of Freddie King's Hideaway.
D also has a couple of Spanish-flavoured instrumental duets with Ottawa guitarist James Cohen that might raise eyebrows in a blues bar, but bring cheers in Madrid.
(Tony D's CD release party is tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield.)
OTTAWA CITIZEN BLUES
NORMAN PROVENCHER