Guy Renardeau – A Review of The Blues Guy & The Shades of Blue
Seven songs. Five vocalists. One composer. One studio. Twenty-six minutes and fifty-one seconds of contemporary blues spanning pain, love, resilience, ambition and self-expression across a musical framework shaped by rock, jazz, soul, R&B, ambient music and cinematic composition simultaneously. The Blues Guy & The Shades of Blue: Colours in Your Mind is not a compilation or a guest-feature showcase or a genre exercise: it is a genuine collaborative album in the most demanding sense of the word, built around the creative vision of Dutch composer, guitarist and producer Guy Renardeau and inhabited by five distinct voices who each bring something to the foundation that no one else could have provided.
Renardeau himself is formidable enough as a musical proposition. A headliner at the international Jimi Hendrix Music Festival. Lead guitarist and songwriter for Gothic rock band Lemming. A performer alongside Hans Dulfer, Omar Dykes, Snowy White and Jimmy Grego of Lenny Kravitz. A GRAMMY voting member, BAFTA and European Film Academy jury member, World Soundtrack Awards Academy voting member. Recognition from institutions including the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, Emmy recognition, Toronto International Film Festival and EIMA Awards. He provides every composition and every instrumental performance across all seven tracks, recorded at Apollo Recording & Film Studio, giving the album the unified musical foundation that makes its diverse vocal collaborations cohere rather than scatter.
Award-winning singer-songwriter Glenda Benevides opens and closes the record with 'Addicted to the Pain' and 'Love on My Mind', her commanding blues and soul voice establishing and completing the album's emotional arc. American artist Class Vee brings contemporary pop and R&B charisma to 'Nonsense' and 'Beautiful Words', her versatility giving both tracks their individual personality within the shared musical world. Polish harmonica virtuoso Łukasz Wiśniewski, twice nominated for the prestigious Fryderyk Awards and recognised across Europe for exceptional stage charisma and emotional command, takes the spotlight on 'Harmonica Blues' with the authority of someone who has been the most compelling person in every room he has entered since 2005. Canadian multi-award-winning actor and singer Melody McArthur, currently preparing to star in the world premiere of Rose at Canada's National Arts Centre, brings the emotional depth of a theatre performer to 'Heartache's on Me'. Dutch-Indonesian soulwriter KIA Knoester, John Lennon Songwriting Contest recognised and contributor to a Grammy-nominated album, delivers 'Watch Me Work' with the honest emotional resonance that has built her critical reputation.
Five voices, one musical world, twenty-six minutes of the real thing. The blues, as it turns out, has not run out of things to say.
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