Review: Steven Troch Band – The Dawning
Steven Troch Band – The Dawning
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Naked
Release: 2025
Text: Andy Trachsel
The Steven Troch Band is a Belgian band which plays an own kind of bluesy music. It’s poppy, vaudeville and pleasant to listen to. Their new album is called ‘The Dawning,’ which features Steven Troch on vocals and harmonica’s, Liesbeth Sprangers on bass and backing vocals, Matti De Rijck on guitars and Dennis de Gier on drums and percussion.
The opening track is Be There For Myself. Steven’s harmonica ressembles the young Stevie Wonder playing. The bass playing makes the song swing. The Mountain is a kind of ska or reggae track and is about the importance of the travel while persuing goals.The trip bass and percussion are in the lead, which is appropriate for the song.
Deleted Scene opens with a spoken word intro and could be typified as three chords and the truth. The harmonica sound goes beyond Stevie and has more balls. Also on Double Down the harmonica sounds good with a swinging Hammond organ and walking bass. It lifts up the whole album. And yes a guitar solo at the end is the cherry on the cake!
God Pulls The Strings is a shuffle from an imaginery western movie. A song of desperation at the mercy of the big man in the sky. Luckely the next track On The Road Again has more balls with a distorted harmonica and a zydeco drums. I like the bass playing! Things get more funky in Stuff. Again that bass and even some James Brown guitar chords.
I like the song Wonder Why because of the steady beat, synths, banjo, liesbeth on backing vocals and yes a fuzzy guitar solo, This could be a hit single! If you are of my generation you will know the tv serie Rawhide. Well Buckriders could be the soundtrack of this tv hit. You hear some horseriding drums and percussion, a cowboy playing some harmonica. Moving a couple years further the hippie lovesong You Came Along comes out of the dawn. The next track Lottery is going back in time again with a jazzy, honky tonk piano, doo-wop vocals and yes Stevie is back on the harmonica. The jazzy vaudeville atmosphere is continued in the final song The Only One and then the dawning has broken and a new day has begun for the Steven Troch band.
Tracks:
01. Be There for Myself
02. The Mountain
03. Deleted Scene
04. Double Down
05. God Pulls The Strings
06. On the Road Again
07. Stuff
08. Wonder Why
09. Buckriders
10. You Came Along
11. The Lottery
12. The Only One
Line-up:
Steven Troch: vocals, harmonica
Matt T. Mahony: gitaar
Liesbeth Sprangers: bas, backing vocals
Dennis de Gier: drums, percussie, backing vocals
Additional muscians
Tom Eylenbosch: piano, Hammond, banjo
Vic Ruggiero: piano, vocals en Moog.
Laura Vandeheede : vocals
Website: https://www.steventroch.com/