A Whole New Land - Noam Dayan - New release Review

I just received and had the chance to review the newest release, A Whole New Land, from Noam Dayan and it's quite good. Dayan, a multi instrumentalist starts off the set with a Lightnin Hopkins track, I Just Don't Care, featuring his solid vocals and authentic guitar work. On original track and title cut, A Whole New Land, Dayan plays some pretty bluesy riffs on a Rev Gary Davis style track. Very nice. Next up is a quartet of Muddy Waters tracks, Canary Bird where Dayan not only sings great but also demonstrates a real knowledge of authentic style Morganfield riffs, I Can't Be Satisfied keeping the track stripped and actually sounding quite fresh, Long Distance Call where he not only plays and sings great but also adds a nice harp part and Down South Blues again kept acoustic and raw. This is a very nice contained of acoustic Mud. On another original track, Love Fell In Love With You, Dayan sounds a bit more contemporary but still not traveling far from the roots of the blues. Another nice track.Next up is Lucille Bogans Sweet Black Angel. It's difficult for a guy to get the feeling projected by Bogan but it is a great track and Dayan continues with solid guitar work. On Big Joe Williams' Baby Please Don't Go, Dayan keeps it light with melodic guitar leads. On Marion Walter Jacobs', Can't Hold Out Much Longer, Dayan does some of his best singing and adds a very sweet harp part over very crisp guitar work. On another original track, My Little Bird. Dayan shows surprising piano skills on an upbeat piano boogie. On Big Bill Broonzy's Hey Hey Baby, Dayan keeps the Piedmont upbeat style and shows continued guitar proficiency. On Robert Lockwood Jr.s Take A Little Walk With Me, Dayan brings on acoustic Chicago for a very nice rendition of this classic track. One of my favorite covers on the release is Morganfield's Honey Bee, where again, Dayan not only has really good feel for the spirit of the track instrumentally on guitar and harp but also vocally. One of my all time favorite blues tracks, Hooker's Hobo Blues, Dayan captures Hookers inflections and syncopation and spirit but of course can't really get the heart of Hoker at his best. In any case a very nice tribute. Next Up Is Robert Johnson's Steady Rollin' Man, featuring Dayan on guitar, piano and vocal. This isn't keeping with Johnson but surpasses in aesthetics some of the high profile covers of Johnson's work done in recent years...you know who I mean. Willie Johnson's Nobody's Fault But Mine has some real nice slide work complimenting very solid vocals. This is another of the best covers on the release. James Lane's Goin' Away Baby is another particularly strong Chicago cover stripped back to acoustic guitar and vocal. Wrapping the release is a very cool electrified blues original, Some Things Never Change, demonstrating that Dayan is proficient at yet another style, chords and jazz blues. It's almost easier to mention what I don't think is really strong on this release that what is. This is a really cool mostly acoustic release by someone who should be getting a lot of attention. His singing and playing across the board is really 1st class. The writing on his original tracks is really solid and his entire release is very well thought out. I really like it!

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