Beaucoup Blue

The blues is like a full moon. The moon's gravitational pull tells oceans to get up and move.
Theoretically, it also tugs at the human blood stream. When folks start behaving strangely on
a Saturday night, getting drunker than usual, driving like maniacs and flipping the bird,
pissing other people off, you might look up in the sky to see if there's a full moon there.
So, too, the blues calls to something in the blood. It pulls us down into the pit of our animal
hearts, yanking at the tide of our emotions.
Master practitioners of the blues draw on emotive skills, calling us with voices like howling,
sighing winds and with hands that push and pull at strings that make a hollow box cry.
When this art form comes at us from a duo who share a blood bond as well as the aforementioned
skills, something special happens. The father and son team of David and Adrian Mowry call
themselves Beacoup Blue and they're here now to show us everything the blues can be.
David's slide guitar is the first thing you notice. In tandem with Adrian's deft fingerpicking it's
precision and grace is the aural equivalent of a hot fudge sundae. Their singing individually and
in harmony combines grit and spirit. David's tenor is big and warm and Adrian's falsetto is sweet
and soulful. How father and son came to be musical partners is a story worth telling.

Beginnings
David Mowry narrates the story of his birth as a musician this way: "One of the reigning queens
of folk music, Buffy St. Marie, gave me quick lesson on the guitar. I grew up in Springfield,
Massachusetts. She was going to the University of Massachusetts at the time. Buffy was staying
with a friend of mine on the street where I lived. He was a budding rock musician and his father
was a jazz musician. When I first saw her she was getting ready to do a show. She was dressed
in a buckskin dress, playing a version of "Heartbreak Hotel." It knocked my socks off. I figured
I had to have some of that. I was about 15 at the time. While I had my ear glued to the transistor
radio, listening to the Drifters and Sam Cooke and all of that. I had no inclination to be a musician
until then. She started the ball rolling and I ended up with a little 'cigar box' guitar [a cheap Stella
or the like]. Then I met the world of folk music. There was a little coffeehouse, 'The Pesky Sarpent'
that opened up in town. Everyone played there. Patrick Sky, Jim Kweskin, Arlo Guthrie. Most
notable was meeting Richie Havens. That was a milestone for me. His performances were mesmerizing
and heart-opening and they galvanized me. In a spiritual sense, he got me to open my ears and my
heart a lot more."

Learning to play
"It was hard to keep that first guitar strung, It was probably plywood, stained to look like mahogany.
I used steel strings. They'd break and I'd be down to one string, then I'd re-string it. I listened to a lot
of records. Peter, Paul and Mary, Modern Folk Quartet. I liked all of that stuff. Books just didn't do
it for me. 'The Old Grey Goose is Dead,' 'Scarlet Ribbons…' I liked 'Scarlet Ribbons' to listen to but
reading tablature was really difficult… it just didn't do it. I responded more to listening to it.
Once the Pesky Sarpent opened I started to meet other players. I developed via the back door.
Although I was self taught. I did learn how to play "Freight Train" from somebody. I remember going
home and playing it and learning it. At first it was really clumsy and it took me about a week to get a
hold of the thing and I would play it faster and faster, as fast as I could. Within a week's time I kinda
had it, but I just figured it was an easy song. I came back and I played it for the guy and he looked at
me as if I'd just stabbed his best friend. He had been working on it for a year. I had the feeling that I
was going to be able to do this, that maybe I should continue with this. At some point in all of this I
started listening to the blues. Curiously enough, before I listened to the country blues, I listened to the
city blues. BB King was the first and strongest influence on me. He just pulled me into all the rest of it.
Musically, things started to happen. I left high school at age 17 &endash; never went to college. I ended up in
Boston. I did a summer stint as an opening act and house performer at the Unicorn on Boylston Street,
which was a big deal at the time. The was a folksinger by the name of Michael Fairbanks who was pretty
well-known in the New England area. He was a headliner there and I opened up for him and it went
on from there."

The Hiatus
There were a number of other acts that followed. The venerated blues player Paul Geremia was among
them, just starting up back then. [Acoustic Live has, for some time, been distracted from its goal of
interviewing Paul Geremia and hopes to correct this soon]. At the end of the summer, a misunderstanding
over David's supposedly comped ho - Acoustic live NYC by Richard Cucarro

Beaucoup Blue "Hearts at Home"

Roots
It's rare you'll see a father/son duo like Beaucoup Blue in these parts. "Yeah, we do run into it touring down south," notes Adrian Mowry. "My earliest memories are of watching my dad play in clubs." Early enough that Adrian was sitting under the table peeping up at David Mowry playing the blues and other acoustic guitar stuff, at legendary places like Club 47 in Cambridge and the original Main Point. "I always wanted to be like him. But I was shy, so I'd close myself away and practice." Adrian was 16 or 17 when he finally let David know he was ready to play out. It's been pretty steady since then. The pair expanded for a while to a quartet and have now tightened back up to an acoustic duo. "Hearts at Home" (self-released) is an example of the duo's philosophy: a love of acoustic roots, with blues and swing featured. But, as Adrian notes, if you love the styles enough, you can't help but be inspired to create some originals in the same vein.
-Mary Armstrong - City Paper (Philadelphia)

Somehow I didn’t realize how much traffic I would run into driving on a major highway on Labor Day weekend. But that’s why I’m extra grateful that I was introduced to the relaxing yet engaging Americana blues of Beaucoup Blue.

Beaucoup Blue is Philadelphia duo David and Adrian Mowry, a father/son team that play mainly steel and slide guitar, respectively. Their latest release, Free to Fall, made a wonderful companion for me while inching across flat Oklahoman plains, stuck in a situation that very easily could have been fodder for road rage.

It’s not just the novelty of the band being centered around a father and son, although this is interesting in itself. And it’s not just that the two clearly have a strong handle on songwriting, although this certainly doesn’t hurt. What makes Free to Fall really special is its pure and simple “Americanness.”

Songs like the opener “Delta Rain” evoke a country/folk/bluegrass/blues sensibility that sounds traditional and original at the same time. References to places in America abound throughout the album, but even more than this, it’s the “down home,” honest, twangy and rich sound that paints a picture of the country.

Both father and son have earnest and soulful voices that further enhance the already rich instrumentation. But when joined by the aptly-named Melody Gardot in the pretty ballad “Bluer than the Midnight Sky” and by the female group Red Molly in “Oh America” and “Free to Fall,” the result is nothing short of beautiful.

“Oh America” puts a new spin on the traditional “America the Beautiful,” adding a knee-slapping beat and wonderfully satirical lyrics like: “Purple mountains majesty/ above the fruity plains/ sell it for a billion bucks/ and buy your own jet plane. Beautiful for spacious skies and amber waves of grain/ put a casino in the middle/ do an Eagle Dance for rain.”

Other highlights include “By Your Side” and “Free to Fall,” which both exude the same earnestness and “Americanness” found throughout.

So while Beaucoup Blue made me look at the (slowly moving) green fields around me in a calmer light, Free to Fall would really make for a great listen anytime. - Independent Clauses

Lots of brothers play together in professional bands; lots of sisters do, too, and even some mothers and daughters. For whatever reason, though, few fathers and sons find enough common ground to hit the highway and make music together, day in and day out.



David and Adrian Mowry, of the Philadelphia-based father-son duo Beaucoup Blue, are the notable exception. They've been creating their distinctive brand of folk-blues music for years now - but they still get a lot of questions about how the collaboration works out.

"Whenever I mention that I play with my father, I hear, 'Ooooh, isn't that so sweet!' (or) 'Oh, you play with your daddy!'" Adrian Mowry said in an interview last week. "Everybody's got preconceived notions of what it's going to sound like before they hear it."

David explained the band's philosophy this way: "We actually have a very active and viable cross-generational musical experience going on. It's interesting for us to merge these two seemingly disparate ideas, which is 'now' and 'before.' I hear an awful lot of 'before,' and I hear an awful lot of 'now' going on 'later,' but I don't hear a lot of people connecting the thread."

As part of the 1960s folk scene in the Boston area, David Mowry learned his chops at the legendary Club 47 (now Club Passim) and similar venues. Adrian grew up watching his dad play in various musical combinations and picked up the guitar himself at age 15, with David offering guidance. In time, the two joined forces - and vocals - under the Beaucoup Blue banner (inspired by a Ringo Starr album title, "Beaucoups of Blues"). Together, their harmonies mesh in a way that only shared DNA can provide.

The band's new CD, "Free To Fall," offers 12 songs written by both Mowrys that skillfully navigate the Americana map. David Mowry's slide guitar and dobro provide the country twang throughout, especially on "Delta Rain" (about rediscovering joy at a post-9/11 music festival), "Whistle, Whistle" (a love song wrapped in a train song) and a new take on the traditional "Hesitation Blues."

Female folk trio Red Molly provide sweet backing vocals on "Oh America" (an indictment of the nation's dark side) and the album's Fats Domino-tinged title track (about cutting ties and letting loose). Adrian Mowry provides some of the album's more tender moments, on ballads "No Friend of Money," "By Your Side" and "Desert Spring."

Even more so than 2005's "Hearts at Home," "Free to Fall" expands the Mowrys' embrace of their influences beyond the blues to country, soul and even some early rock 'n' roll.

"People have been crossing and blurring the lines for a long, long time. We're just carrying on," David Mowry said. "So I don't care what you call it - it really doesn't bother me. But if someone wants to get an explanation, I'm wordy enough to go there!" - by Chris Kocher Sun-Bulletin Binghamton, NY

Rootsy blues with tinges of folk, country and r&b thrown in for good measure.
Beaucoup Blue is Philadelphia based duo, composed of David and Adrian Mowry. This their third duo release, and father and son helmed the sessions in association with Grammy- nominated producer/engineer Jim Salamone (Grover Washington, Patti Labelle. Bon Jovi). David Mowry was winner of the 2006 Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition which takes place annually during the mid-September Colorado based Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. A musical veteran of some five decades David has performed with his son since late last century.
Based on the foregoing, while you would not be wrong in thinking that the duo's main musical bent is blues, they're not averse to throwing in touches of folk, soul, r&b, country and more. The twelve cuts here include an arrangement of the traditional Hesitation Blues, there's five songs composed by father David and six tunes from his young offspring. Set immediately post 9/11, the slightly husky voiced elder Mowry opens proceedings with briskly paced, autobiographical Memphis road trip "Delta Rain". The swing paced Catch Me When I Wake Up, also penned by Mowry senior, would not be out of place on a Lyle Lovett recording, and on the ensuing ballad "Bluer Than The Midnight Sky,he's joined by Universal recording artist (and Norah Jones sound-alike) Melody Gardot.
An electric blues, Adrian's "Whistle, Whistle" is propelled by Bob Beach's harmonica and his father's slide guitar. David is accompanied on his social commentary "Oh America"-'Don't you be no sucker, don't you be no slave, It's where the heroes go homeless in the home of the brave'-by the voices of New York based folk trio Red Molly (Laurie MacAllister, Abbie Gardner and Carolann Solebello) Whistle Whistle apart, Mowry the younger's influences tend to be rhythmically more restrained. Ballad paced, "Desert Spring" is a prayer for replenishing rainfall, and the album closes with a trio of Adrian originals- "Running Out The Door", "Drive For Hours" and "No Friend Of Money"-respectively love, road and blue-collar themed numbers.
While blues may be their genetically shared foundation, Free To Fall amply and melodically demonstrates this duo's diverse roots music influences. AW - Maverick

"By Your Side" 1st place Grand Prize Winner in the R&B/ Blues category.

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Philadelphia’s Beaucoup Blue may be billed as a father- son duo, but they’re no Weird Al-style novelty act. “I think when people read that they go, ‘Isn’t that cute’ and ‘They must not be that serious.’ But the reason we continue to play music together is because we really believe in the music itself,” son Adrian Mowry says. “We’re both songwriters, and we have different styles from different generations, but we really are knocked out by the music. I would want to do that with anybody, whether it’s my father or brother or somebody that’s not in the family.”

Fri., Feb. 27, 9pm.
$13-$15.
World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St.
215.222.1400.
www.worldcafelive.com
Adrian grew up playing music with his father David from a young age, and the two have been performing together publicly for more than a decade. They’ve morphed from a full-on electric band to an acoustic act set to release their third album, Free to Fall. The duo continues to combine heartfelt blues with elements of soul, R&B, country and bluegrass. Featuring all original compositions, except one traditional arrangement, Free to Fall showcases not only energetic and spine-tingling vocals and guitars, but creative original songwriting.

“The last two [albums] were kind of vehicles to help us develop a style,” David explains. “We did some original songs, but we didn’t pay a lot of attention to arranging. This time we decided we would pay more attention to the song and what it seemed to want to do.” - Philadelphia Weekly by Katherine Silkaitis

Beaucoup Blue, with apologies to Ringo, is the Philadelphia based guitar playing father and son duo of David and Adrian Mowry. The two have been performing their acoustic, blues based folk music up and down the Eastern Seaboard since Adrian was a teenager. Joined here by concordant drummer, percussionist and harmonica player Jim Salamone, the pair soulfully mix up eight top notch originals with inventive, distinctively styled covers of songs by Benny Goodman (a delightfully finger picker "Stompin' at the Savoy"), blues singers John Lee Hooker and Elmore James, Tony Joe White (the most dolorous version of "Rainy Night in Georgia" you'll ever hear) and Kid Ory.
Throughout, their voices work superbly together, frequently attaining a mesmeric panache that must be thrilling to view in person, while their fret board and arranging skills are evident immediately. Three originals that close the album are particularly illustrative. A melodic, dream-like confessional, "Heartache On Horizon", is followed by the Dylanesque "I Surrender" (a notesabounding journey of tempos, tones and feelings) and the lyrical, slowly unwinding title song, about hard times, flashes of starlight and the ongoing search for peace and understanding. Also peerless are the pair's deceptively easy going treatment of the traditional "Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor", with mellow, inter-locking slide and fingerpicked asides and David's passionately swaggering vocal, and yet another Mowry composition - the bluesy, harmonica - enhanced "I Heard Gabriel Singing".
Beaucoup Blue is a versatile, imaginative team that has something to say and say it with an adventurous sense of personality from the bottom of their hearts.
Gvon T - Sing Out! Magazine

When we first encountered the father and son duo, David and Adrian Mowry,
who call themselves Beaucoup Blue, we were immediately struck by David's
slide work. His energy and virtuosity seemed to be the foundation for their
harmonies and skill in translating the blues in a variety of forms. It underscores
his rich, beefy vocals and his son Adrian's soulful croon.

While we were marveling at their great sound and versatility, our awareness of
their mastery of the songwriter's craft didn't fully hit home until hearing Free To Fall.

Now in retrospect, the cumulative effect of all three of their albums shows that
they possess the all the tools to consistently write superior original blues material.
Although their material may, at times, reach toward jazz and pop, for this author,
steeped in Sun Records sensibility, their blues is what I love best.

That said, one of this reviewer's favorites, "Delta Rain," has an Allman Brothers
Southern rock touch. At its core is the setting of 9/11. David and Adrian went to
Arkansas after the planes hit the towers. As they rode down highway 61,
"the hay bales as big as buses" left their imprint and found their way into the lyrics.
This novelistic touch, one of many, is what makes their writing so involving.
The pulsating drive of the song helps to push the point of their angst home as they sing:
Delta rain, wash these blues away
the dust of Armageddon is blowin' your way…
What better thing to do when your world's in an uproar
Sing your broken heart out on the brink of a world war
"Hesitation Blues" is a joyful boogie romp. With Jeff Sheard on drums and Bill Zinno on
acoustic upright bass it's like a beer-soaked afternoon spent in a bar with a live band.
In addition, the bodacious blues harp of Bob Beach matches Adrian's slide work stride for stride.

There are duets with Philly thrush Melody Gardot and the Americana female trio Red Molly

"Bluer Than The Midnight Sky" with Melody, very Motown-like, drips with soul.

"Oh, America," with support from Red Molly, takes our consumerist ways to task behind a
driving beat that suggests a ride across the continent.
Well, it's all about bargains, everything you see
There ain't nothin' that ain't for sale in the land of the free…"
With the third album of what promises to be a very long career, Beaucoup Blue has already
built a body of work that is seething with passion and intelligence. - Acoustic Live- NYC

OK, I'll just admit it. I am a sucker for slide guitar. To me, there aren't many better sounds in music. That being said, it didn't take me long to get hooked on Free To Fall. The first tune features some nice slide guitar and reminds me of Hot Tuna.
That is not the only time that the band's sound is reminiscent of Hot Tuna. "Catch Me When I Wake Up" is a blues groove that features a walking doghouse bass line and more of the slide guitar. The vocals in this song remind me somewhat of Al Blake.

"Bluer than the Midnight Sky" features vocals by Melody Gardot. She is a truly gifted singer whose voice is smooth like Norah Jones. This is a tune that you might want to listen to more than once.

Beaucoup Blue - Free to Fall
Rating:Four and 1/2 stars
Beaucoup Blue is a band that alternates between a folky sound and some blues grooves that come from somewhere deep inside the musicians. It is easy to imagine this band sitting on a front porch somewhere playing for anyone who happens to pass by. That front porch sound is best represented in the band's version of "Hesitation Blues."

As you progress through the CD, you realize that it's not merely the melodies and vocals that are similar to what Hot Tuna has done for decades. The band isn't afraid to dip into some social commentary. In "Oh America," the singer tells us "There ain't nothin' that ain't for sale in the land of the free." It's pretty hard to argue with that.

This is a very solid effort that just breezes by. Before I knew it, the album was over. If you enjoy down-to-earth blues-based folk music, this is definitely an album you should add to your collection.
- antimusic.com

Beaucoup Blue, with apologies to Ringo, is the Philadelphia based guitar playing father and son duo of David and Adrian Mowry. The two have been performing their acoustic, blues based folk music up and down the Eastern Seaboard since Adrian was a teenager. Joined here by concordant drummer, percussionist and harmonica player Jim Salamone, the pair soulfully mix up eight top notch originals with inventive, distinctively styled covers of songs by Benny Goodman (a delightfully finger picker "Stompin' at the Savoy"), blues singers John Lee Hooker and Elmore James, Tony Joe White (the most dolorous version of "Rainy Night in Georgia" you'll ever hear) and Kid Ory.
Throughout, their voices work superbly together, frequently attaining a mesmeric panache that must be thrilling to view in person, while their fret board and arranging skills are evident immediately. Three originals that close the album are particularly illustrative. A melodic, dream-like confessional, "Heartache On Horizon", is followed by the Dylanesque "I Surrender" (a notesabounding journey of tempos, tones and feelings) and the lyrical, slowly unwinding title song, about hard times, flashes of starlight and the ongoing search for peace and understanding. Also peerless are the pair's deceptively easy going treatment of the traditional "Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor", with mellow, inter-locking slide and fingerpicked asides and David's passionately swaggering vocal, and yet another Mowry composition - the bluesy, harmonica - enhanced "I Heard Gabriel Singing".
Beaucoup Blue is a versatile, imaginative team that has something to say and say it with an adventurous sense of personality from the bottom of their hearts.
Gvon T - Sing Out! Magazine