Yes, that Johnny Gravel still plays is, if not miraculous, at the very least a victory of will over fate: who would have thought that after the multiple stroke that struck him down in 2012, he would regain motor skills AND dexterity, and that his Martin D-28 from 1971 would be there, survivor and survivor together? No one except Johnny. That wouldn’t in itself be the right reason to buy this record: no one would want to listen to this second volume of Acoustic Sessions as one examines a case in point, tracking down conclusive or incriminating signs, measuring what the guitarist of Les Héritiers, Les Gants Whites, Offenbach, Ravens and Corbach can or can’t do anymore. Alone with his instrument, with the help of friends, Patrick “Patsou” in production and Louis Bonneville in direction, the unkillable warrior simply walks through his world of riffs and licks, with ease and happiness. It sounds like a thousand blues and folk songs and it can only be Johnny Gravel. Let’s celebrate, that’s all.
To see in video