Muddy Gurdy

FRENCH HURDY GURDY MEETS THE NORTH MISSISSIPPI HILL COUNTRY BLUES A trio of French musicians Tia Gouttebel (guitar, voice) Gilles Chabenat (Hurdy-Gurdy - a traditional French instrument) and Marc Glomeau (percussion) conceived a type of music that draws its inspiration from traditional French music and North Mississippi Hill Country Blues, using the Hurdy-Gurdy as a 2nd guitar. Following a daring new path, they brought together two musical cultures that had never before been associated with one another. For their second album, they decided to travel to the native land of North Mississippi Hill Country Blues, to bring to life this unprecedented union. And so the Muddy Gurdy adventure began. They traveled to the United States and immersed themselves in the country towns of North Mississippi, where they hoped to make nomadic style recordings with major local artists. Cedric Burnside, Shardé Thomas, Cameron Kimbrough, and Pat Thomas in the Delta, all descendants of prestigious elders (RL Burnside, Otha Turner, James Son Thomas) lent themselves to the project with talent, humility and the excitement of a unique musical experience. Far removed from fancy recording studios and cutting edge technology, field engineer Pierre Bianchi captured the emotion of these encounters with only an 8 microphone preamp and a computer. The recordings took place on front porches, back porches, at peoples houses and in historic landmarks which are woven into the memory of Mississippi (Dockery farm, Ebony Club). The result is an incredibly authentic recording, without any gimmicks or gloss, where the titles are recorded on location, where the old melts into a new music that is all its own.