2025 – Nepotism Recordings
Release Date : September
25, 2025
By Phillip
Smith; November
1, 2025
Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com
Louisiana-based GeminiiDRAGON has been on my radar and
in my reviews since her album Fightin’ Fire With Fire in 2022. Her fifth
and latest release Moonlight Movin’ & Groovin’ continues to solidify
my appreciation for this band. Geminii’s powerful and unique, vocals really
draw my attention. For this album Washington D.C.-area guitarist Linwood
Taylor is brought onboard to not only play, but help co-write each of the
songs with GeminiDRAGON and co-producer/guitarist Christian Simeon.
The record opens with “Blues is
So Good”, which also serves as the first single released off this album. With a
buttery bassline, searing guitar licks, and fearless vocals, the song makes a
perfect companion piece to Little Milton’s “The Blues is Alright”. Guitarist
Santiago-MartÃn Chalchihuicueyatl Ortega (Santiago and The Signifiers)
steps in as a guest guitarist for “Pressure” and “Rainy Wednesday”. The rich keyboard and horn-infused landscape
of “Pressure” hits me like the power-R&B songs which was one of the things I
dug about the Eighties. Wait two days after “Blue Monday” and one finds themselves
sitting smack dab in the middle of terrifically blues-soaked “Rainy Wednesday”.
An infectious intro and driving rhythm instantly
pull me in to the world of the unscrupulous “Mr. Slip & Slide Man”. I love
the approach GeminiiDRAGON takes with this song as they seem to walk a
line between the houses of Stax and Muscle Shoals. The album goes
into full-on Mississippi Delta Blues territory when harmonica-extraordinaire
Julia Dill steps in for two songs. “Blues Party” instantly puts a smile
on my face as I lean into this cookin’, rip-roaring performance. And then “Juke
Joint Jumpin’” brings back a flood of wonderful memories of jukin’ down in Clarksdale,
Mississippi with right-on descriptions of liquor flowing, windows shaking,
and good times. It’s a great song.
With a base of blues at the core,
GeminiiDRAGON’s Moonlight Movin’ & Groovin’ is fortified with
touches of funk and rock. It certainly makes for a delightful record which is
highly conductive to getting one’s jam on.
---
Available on BandCamp
For past PhillyCheeze reviews
for GeminiiDRAGON > https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/search?q=geminiiDragon
For past PhillyCheeze reviews
for Linwood Taylor > https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/search?q=Linwood+Taylor
