“Let’s boogie!” Two new boys have arrived on the Edinburgh August scene, bringing a fresh way to worship the Fringe experience: bangin’ blues & a whisky tasting – they are like the perfect bedfellows, right? The Rhythm and Booze Project are London based; a Scotsman (Paul) & an American (Felipe), so they will know their whisky, & they clearly know their blues, such was the assorted selection of numbers brought to life with foot-stomping vigour by Paul’s passionate, blissed-out percussion & Felipe’s sublime slide guitar burnis’d by his feverish voice.
Inbetween songs, three different drams were brought out on trays out by a smiling team, alongside water in pipettes to ease the throatburners. The setting was Venue 45, a converted church which seemed apt, as Felipe so ably told us, for it was Irish monks who first brought the art of distillery to Scotland. This was just one of a series of erudite nuggets from the soft-spoken, hard-singing, Felipe, for one of the main aspects of their show is to teach is enough pretentious ‘bullshit’ to blag our way through highbrow whiskey, aroma detecting, vapour sniffing circles.
After a couple drams I get better, after a few more I get worse but I think I get better Paul Read the full interview…
As the whisky kicked in – one was 65 percent – things just got better & better, the whoops got louder & the playing got slicker – Paul’s silver string’d flingers sliding up a washboard is a phenomenon! As we heard tunes like the Chicago classic ‘Spoonful’ & John Lee Hooker’s ‘Boom Boom,’ I loved watching a group of gawping middle-aged men sat like teenage groupies nearest our musicians, completely awe-struck by the show. This, by the way, provided the most euphoric experience I have ever had at the Fringe. I am a musician myself, & I’m currently having a fallow period, but seeing The Rhythm and Booze Project strut their stuff is a sheer inspiration… now where’s mah gee-tah?
Mumble Music 