Zora Young - The French Connection - Delmark Records 2009

Her family moved to Chicago when she was seven-years-old, and Young grew up singing Gospel; but as she got older, the Blues began to take on a more significant part of her life, and she has successfully carved out a stellar career for herself.

Enter her latest offering from Delmark Records, The French Connection, which is more like three EP's than one CD. That's certainly not a knock on the album, though, which slides between full electric band performances, acoustic numbers, and live concert recordings.

The album contains only one of Zora Young's own songs, the live "Toxic," a great slow Blues about a destructive love affair (featuring some killer piano.) The remainder of the tracks on The French Connection are quite an eclectic mix of tunes, including covers of songs by B.B. King, Bob Dylan, and Hank Snow, among others.

It all kicks off with "Better Be Ready," the Dick Shurman penned warning about all things male. The tune features some fun, Frampton-esque talk-box guitar, and is the first of three songs recorded with Producer and Musical Director Bobby Dirninger's studio band (the other two being the Dirninger written ballad "I'm In Love With You" and the duet cover of Dylan's "Tonight I'll Be Staying With You," done Country style and featuring Zora and Dirninger sharing vocal duties, as well as some beautiful pedal steel guitar by Emmanuel Bertrand.)

The live cuts feature Zora backed by Paris, France's Natural Blues Band. The outfit is very adept at the Blues style and ompliments Zora very nicely with their playing. Young and the band rip through classics like "Wang Dang Doodle," Muddy Waters' "Honey Bee," and the Blues staple "Rock Me Baby." That's in addition to "Toxic" and Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On," a track with a firey guitar solo and great horn fills.

The remaining six songs on The French Connection feature an acoustic studio band led by Dirninger. There are two versions of Sunnyland Slim's "Goin' Back To Memphis" (a slower version with some fantastic percussion and an uptempo take with Bobby Dirninger knocking out some blinding acoustic slidework.) There's also a subdued version of "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" that will go down as a personal favorite of mine. Rounding out the acoustic tracks on The French Connection are "See See Rider," a cover of Elvis' "In The Ghetto" (which features a spoken word intro by Young about the reality of poverty worldwide,) and "Mystery Train."

Delmark has a winner in The French Connection, with the dynamic duo of Zora Young and Bobby Dirninger turning in a very cool album that successfully combines live performances, stripped down acoustic tunes, and full-on electric studio numbers.

Standout Tracks: "Goin' Back To Memphis" (Version 1,) "Just A Closer Walk With Thee," "In The Ghetto," and "Toxic"

Click Here To Preview Tracks and Purchase Zora Young's New Album - "The French Connection"