Kevin Brown

Mojave Dust ‘Get Rhythm’

Kevin Brown's first ever solo acoustic album, Mojave Dust, provides twelve compelling reasons to seek out one of the UK great unsung heroes of roots music whom Mark Knopfler rates as "a fabulous slide player". An atmospheric slice of desert blues, it's an understated gem that sits up there with the best of Ry Cooder and KellyJoe Phelps. Steeped in the sounds of Amencana, Mojave Dust reverberates with the heat and beauty redolent of south-western USA as Brown's melancholic vocals and incredible guitar create an irresistible groove that draws the listener close within his tales of love, moving on, pollution, death, drink and football. All original material except for a tender take on RobertJohnson's 'Travelling Riverside Blues', Brown writes with the deft touch of the craftsman he undoubtedly is. 'Tornado Woman', 'Johnny Don't Cry', 'Alcohol', and the beautiful 'Are You Still Dancing To Another Tune' are peaks on an album where the standard never dips beneath the benchmark of excellent.


‘Mojave Dust’ Net Rythyms review

Blues isn't for the head. It's an earthy trinity of heart, soul and something very much lower. It's born of despair, lives in the moment and leaves its echoes when it's gone.

A new album of spine-tingling acoustic Delta blues in all its raw purity by Kevin Brown is shortly to be released by Doodah Records - and it's totally compelling in its intimate sparseness. Mojave Dust was recorded live using a single microphone and no graphic equalisation, and every subtly and touch of slide on strings can be heard. All new songs (plus Robert Johnson's Travelling Riverside Blues) are of the highest quality. Brown's voice is strong and emotionally-stirring in its desolation.

Once signed to Chrysalis, Hannibal and Taxim, West Country-based Brown is one of our greatest blues musicians and songwriters, and Mojave Dust is arguably his best album yet. Less is definitely more. This is guitar playing at its most immediate and wonderful. Essential blues.

Sue Cavendish NetRythms


‘Mojave Dust’

Sometimes rarely but just sometimes, a CD just arrives. However it's almost unique for it to be of the quality of Mojave Dust. And in one of those quirks of fate, as I prepared to review it the title track was played on Paul Jones' R&B show on Radio 2. What Kevin Brown re-affirms, emphatically is that to play the blues all you need is a guitar, a voice and a wagonload of belief, wagonload was not the first word that ·Sprang to mind but you get the idea. If I tell you that alongside the self-penned numbers there is only one cover, Robert' Johnson's Travelling Riverside Blues, it will give .you some idea of what Brown is offering. Throughout the album you can hear strings being bent as he leaves Life red-raw and bleeding in the wake of·some real gritty blues.

Biographical detail is scant born in Lancashire his first album Picking Good Tunes was released in 1984, The other true statement is that he is not as yet, a household name The-question has to be why?’ His Subtle earthy slide guitar dovetails with a rasping, powerful voice to produce music without compromise. It's the solitary, atmosphere that Mojave Dust creates that is its greatest delight. This is not just a dozen songs burned on to a CD; it's a personal performance for all those lucky enough to own it. Strangely I've reviewed this without picking out any individual tracks and that's testament to the album as a whole experience. Pick any one of the 12 and you will find a steamy sensual example of the blues at its very best. Better still do what I did, sit back open something cold and lose yourself for an hour or so. It's the healthiest out of body experience on the go. But at the end of the journey comes one of the most beautiful songs When Saturday Comes, it's not about football it's about life and passion and surely that's the blues.

Michael Mee, the Tweedale Press Group.

‘The Guitar Magazine’ reviews Kevin Brown's Mojavé Dust.

British Bottlenecker Brown wrote almost all of these songs himself-apart from Robert Johnson’s Travelling Riverside Blues. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the ‘what’

One voice, one guitar, one slide, one serious dose of the blues. The key thing with this album is the ‘how’, as in ‘how well was it done ? The answer:brilliantly…..Brown leaves other slide merchants eating his dust !

The Guitar Magazine



Kevin Brown & Moussa Kouyate - KORA BLUES (DooDah) SONGLINES (Nigel Williamson

Ry Cooder certainly started somethingwhen he recorded Talking Tibuktu with Ali Farka Toure almost a decade ago. Since then we’ve had American guitarists Taj Mahal and Bob Brozman teaming up with various African virtuosi to explore the sonic links between the blues and West African rhythms and ancient instruments such as the Kora and Balafon. Kevin Brown is the latest to jump on what one hesitates to call the bandwagon-it is an entirely welcome phenomenon.

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