I am most assuredly a fan of Blues music. From the deep, "real" Blues of the likes of Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf, through the sixties and seventies resurgence, under the watchful eyes of THE YARDBIRDS and ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, all the way to the modern era of Samantha Fish, Devon Allman and Susan Tedeschi; it is a genre that I have followed with a fervor, since my earliest memories of childhood. Having said that, I was very happy to sit down with the debut release from IVY GOLD, "Six Dusty Winds". The pedigree is certainly in place where this multi-national five piece is concerned; with Sebastian Eder (AVALON) on guitar, Americans Tal Bergman (Joe Bonnamassa, Billy Idol) and Kevin Moore (Jennifer Rush) on drums and bass, respectively, and Sweden's Anders Olinder (Peter Gabriel, Amy Winehouse, Glenn Hughes) on keyboard. The unknown, for me, anyway, was vocalist Manou, who is a strikingly beautiful young lady, to be certain, with an impressive vocal range. In theory, everything exists to make this an incredible release.

"Six Dusty Winds" is instead a somewhat lackluster venture into a modern Blues Rock sound. Everything is polished 100% to the letter, to a fault. The songs here are tight enough, and the musicianship is on par with anyone in the business; but the element that really sells the genre for me is, sadly, missing.

"Face Of Deceit" opens this ten song album. The song, musically, has a decent groove to it, with some great guitar work from Eder. The rhythm section holds things together with an obvious feel for the style, and Olinder's keyboard work is beyond reproach. The song falls flat for me with Manou's vocal. Her delivery is unconvincing, and really doesn't feel natural. I don't doubt her sincerity or level of talent in the least, but the vocals feel forced; whereas the best Blues seem to flow from the heart and soul, it seems she is trying to force it from her head.

The same problems exist throughout the entire release. "Retribution" has the chance to be an absolutely gorgeous song, but the forced, growly vocal takes that chance away. The same holds true for the title cut, "Six Dusty Winds". I can't quite put my finger on it, but the lyrical metering seems to be a bit off on quite a number of the tracks here, as well. I'm not certain that this style is best suited for Manou to showcase her talents; but as I have stated, she is obviously talented. I hope she finds her niche, somewhere down the road.