CD Review – Fontaine Brown – “Tales From the Fence Line”

By blue barry – Smoky Mtn. Blues Society

October – 2008

 

You better give this one a listen.  Fresh new sounds for tired old ears.  Fontaine Brown’s “Tales from the Fence Line” is good stuff.  Everything from guitar, to sitar, to harp, to mandolin, and then some.  A really  imaginative CD here guys.  Slide, drums, great vocals, weird sounds, and beats.  I really like it.  Fontaine has been playing in bands since he can remember.  Some places he had to have a fake ID just to get in to play the gig.  Now there’s a bluesman.  He speaks of 5 years of living in the van from gig to gig, honing his stuff.  There are 12 cuts on the CD. Some really fine music here.  Blues, ballads, a little of everything that over the years Fontaine learned, and put in his repertoire.  He has written over 200 songs. A partial list of folks who have recorded some of his songs include Percy Sledge, John Mayall, Joe Louis Walker, Emmylou Harris, and Dave Alvin.  Not bad at all.  Now he’s doing his own music as well as song writing, and it quite refreshing.  A great voice as well.  I think you will like this CD.  My favorites are   “Ain’t No Brakeman, “Fence Line’, “Lost in the Sensation,” well heck, all of them.  Check this one out, I think you will find a winner.  Myspace.com/fontainebrown   Have a great fall – your friend, blue barry