Self proclaimed as an earthy, original, bluesy, fun RnB combo, the Daryl Roberts project "Hey Gringo" offers a great CD, appropriately titled "I Was There". A nine track, all original masterpiece featuring outstanding musicians Ross Hannaford (Daddy Cool, Diana Kiss) - Paul Gadsby (Paul Kelly, Men At Work) - Nicky Bomba on drums and David Williamson on sax. Daryl himself is no stranger, having led an illustrious career since 1974, which has spanned many genres (Jimmy Witherspoon, Fingerprint, The Legends, Bobsy Die, The Breakaways).
Combine the influences of the dynamic 70's rock n roll era, with modern day blues rock and throw in the above musicians, then you have a definitive "Hey Gringo" sound, that takes you back to when 'maybe' you were there. Theoretically, this could fall into a number of genre categories, although you will most probably find it often grouped within the blues and roots sections.
Each track has it's own standout qualities, deserving individual accolades, making it almost impossible to pick out any one particular song as a favorite. After listening to many of the similar sounding recordings that pop up in the blues industry, "I Was There" is a dynamic breath of fresh air, proving once again that there is no limit to how far you can interweave the basic principles of blues, with other styles of music.
Weighing in at around 30 minutes, this CD is one that I can listen to many times over, and highly recommend the album for it's modern day nostalgic flavour.
REVIEW and Copyright by Mark 'radar' Watson (Mr Blues) on 24th August 2002REVIEW http://www.zipworld.com.au/~mr-blues/reviews/heygringoCD.html
Hey Gringo is a Melbourne based band led by Daryl Roberts that plays rootsy rhythm and blues. The band includes Paul Gadsby on upright & electric bass & vocals, Nicky Bomba on Drums, percussion and vocals, David Williamson on sax & Daryl Roberts on keyboards,mandolin, harmonica, guitar/slide, accordion & vocals..
Daryl has played in numerous bands over the years playing folk, blues and covers. He has also played with blues great Jimmy Witherspoon.
The album I Was There features nine songs all penned by Daryl Roberts. The songs are very fresh, witty and catchy, once you’ve heard them you can’t wait to hear them over and over again.
Some of my favourite tracks include Go Your Own Way which has a cool piano intro and meaty slide throughout, and Don’t You Love Me with it’s funky groove and great lyrics.
Hey Gringo are a tight unit and the overall sound of the album is of a band that sounds like they’re having fun at what they do. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from Hey Gringo in the very near future.
ERIC BLACK – Blue Country 101FM – QLD - http://baseq.tripod.com/id22.htm
Hey Gringo is an Australian band who blends a lot of kind of rhtyhms and got an unique sound. They used acordions or percussion, instruments not for classic blues. The band reach his own sound and this is something remarcable and we can't put in an determined style. The asutralian blues is something new for us, but they used the roots music mixing and creating his own style. The song open the cd "face myself" is a texas blues, "soul" the second song make as remember the louisiana sound because they put acordion, the typical insrtument of the creole music.
Three next songs used well known structures but got own sound. Daryl Roberts, the band leaderplays a lot of instruments, slide guitar, acordion, mandolin, keys and harp. They put a funky touch to this work adding a saxaphone specially on "only thing I need". Perhaps the most bizarre song on the album is "i was there" with an orienta; arab touch arrangement and thenthe voice remeber me to Kim Wilson, fabulous thunderbirds singer.
Hey Gringo got finest musicians, a really good own sound and more than one style, and this is what is apart as traditional blues band and make his a innovative band. Maybe blues of the new millenium.