Diana Rein

Ms Rein has a sweet voice, not dark or edgy and well suited to folk or ballads but her heart is in Blues and rock and so we learn from the opening number, ‘Yes I Sing The Blues’.
What she also brings is a terrific talent for playing guitar in a Texas style.
I have to say, once you get over her vocal register, she is a cracking performer.

She got her start at 8 in a Chicago Blues club and claims as influences Stevie Ray Vaughan and Phillip Sayce but I personally find her guitar playing more melodic than either of those giants.

This is her third album, produced by Walter Trout’s drummer Michael Leasure, and sounds to me as though it could well be her breakthrough CD.

There are a wide variety of styles on show here including ‘The Midnight Line’ with a real sixties Blues groove and a much stronger vocal; her guitar solo really shows her chops and mastery of pace. Other favourites include ‘Pure Soul’ where she takes a sultry tone to a rock chick love song to a guitar god and ‘One Foot In’ which has a Sayce-meets-Allmans groove to it.

There is no question that Diana Rein is some talent, especially as a guitarist and songwriter, her voice is an acquired taste (although it is growing on me) but overall. This is an album that should get a fair few listens in the coming weeks.