2018 – Ruf Records
Release Date: Aug. 17,
2018
By Phillip Smith;
July 28, 2018
Vanja
Sky, one of the newest blues artists to join the Ruf
Records family, takes no prisoners with her brand new album Bad Penny. It was just five years ago, this former
pastry chef from Croatia picked up a guitar, and in the moment, she knew
that being a musician was her destiny.
Within two years, she was in a band touring Croatia, Slovenia,
and Germany.
Recorded at Bessie Blue Studios in Statonville,
Tennessee, and Studio Erde in Berlin, Germany, Bad Penny features Mike Zito on
rhythm guitar, Terry Dry and Dave Smith on bass guitar, Matthew
Johnson and Yonrico Scott on drums, and Lewis Stephens on
piano/organ. She also enlists the
legendary Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, Steve Miller,
Miles Davis) to take on the tasks of engineering in Tennessee, along
with Tobias Noethen who engineered the tracks recorded in Germany.
Vanja
rocks out on a killer cover of Rory Gallagher’s “Bad Penny” for the
title track. Her voice is strong and
fearless. Her guitar licks are
terrific. I get totally swept up in Zito’s
outrageously infectious riffs. The blues
are smokin’ with lots of great slide on “Low Down and Dirty”, which includes Bernard
Allison alongside Vanja and Zito. It’s downright bodacious.
Shining brightly as a songwriter as well, Vanja
penned ten of the dozen tracks on the record.
Tender and poignant “Inside Pain” seems to float in mid-air in a
beautiful performance. She totally rips
it up on “Give Me Back My Soul”, a Texas style blues rocker with a theme most
familiar to blues enthusiasts. It’s a favorite indeed. Like a Lucinda Williams tune,
“Crossroads of Life” digs its fingernails in deep and packs a wallop of that
great swampy sound of country blues. It’s brilliant.
Searing guitar licks along with Vanja’s
amazing vocal stylings make Bad Penny one
hot album, enjoyed start to finish with every listen. Vanja is currently touring with Mike
Zito and Bernard Allison on the Ruf Records Blues Caravan. This is one show I don’t want to miss.
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