FRANCK & DAMIEN "Juniper Road" (Soulbeats)
Add Date: 10/24/2023
Release Date: 10/27/2023
FCC: Clean
Focus Tracks: Blind, Home, California
Formats: Non-Comm AAA, AMA, NACC Top 200, Submodern, Folk
RIYL: Donavon Frankenreiter, Xavier Rudd, Ben Harper
Family is important. Feeling good, relaxed, loved, listened to, within a community of close friends who share the same vibe, the same interests, the same sensations. Franck & Damien love and share the amber sound of the lapsteel, the intoxicating slide, the roundness of the six-string and the freshness of the banjo. Blues, country music and folk-rock born in the barns of Laurel Canyon... Harmonies, warm voices, fortunate encounters… Simplicity, humility, sharing... Surfing, deserted beaches, California, wild Australia.
You would know the members of this merry band: Xavier Rudd, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter, John Butler Trio, Tash Sultana, John Mayer, Mason Jennings... Yes: family is essential. Between cousins or adopted children, we understand each other so well! What's more, we speak the same language: in this case, English, carried by melodious, laid-back, never-pressed voices on songs that are often gentle, often punchy, always powerful, always hard-hitting. Franck and Damien don't see their tribe that often: they're in Bordeaux, in their beloved Médoc, a land of vineyards, sandy strips, pristine waves and good vibes; the others are in Hawaii, Los Angeles or the Australian bush. But that's all right. The signs, the codes, the vibes are the same. So we decide to get together when we have to, when we feel like it. Why not in Los Angeles, where the duo love to recharge their batteries, between strolls down Sunset Boulevard and ballads recorded at sunset?
Here, for their second album after the warm You Can Find Your Way, it's Donavon Frankenreiter, surf prodigy and international icon of American folk, who has come along to enchant the nervous and captivating California, of which he himself is the embodiment. Feel alright with the high tide! Earlier, it was on the subtle, nonchalant acoustic live version of Home that Donavon’s bassist Matt Grundy slipped in with his sweet harmonica. And with good reason: the Piñon Hills local from San Bernardino is also the producer of this album! Not forgetting, on Spread Love, a visit from Joaco Terán, their freesurfer brother and Argentinian musician. For Juniper Road, the album of maturity, is also one of plenitude and serenity. Franck's voice is full and vibrant, the harmonies chiseled, the atmosphere warm and inviting.
Family is fundamental. So is luck. When they hear the story of Damien picking-up Franck hitchhiking on the side of the road, a meeting so fortuitous it seemed fated, their buddies are still laughing.
The duo complement each other so well, the osmosis and connivance so blatant, Franck's voice and guitar, Damien's string picking and percussion, that this anecdote, so real, sounds fabricated. Okay, it didn't take place on the Pacific Coast Highway in a Cadillac, but more likely in a Renault Clio on the road to Lacanau (a beach town in the South-West of France).
Just like the video for Home, which, like some of their other clips, was not shot in the USA, but in the Spanish desert of the Bardenas Reales.
Franck & Damien have never needed to prove their identity and legitimacy, especially through clichés. From now on, with this second twelve-track album polished in Matt's Super Bloom studio, Franck & Damien know exactly where they're going: back to their Anglo-Saxon and South American cousins who have long since adopted them, to continue touring and performing, distilling their road songs with messages as simple as they are rich and direct, like a true philosophy of life: love, friendship, sharing, fulfillment, such as on the energetic, raging Fire And Soul (much juicier than the Cranberries'), but also hope and melancholy, as on Another Way: an emotional tale of a sailor in perdition, supported by a round bass sound, acoustic drums and an electronic organ.
Not forgetting, of course, their sense of humor. Because behind their music, practiced with the seriousness and meticulousness that characterize them, Franck and Damien like (love) to have a laugh and make those around them and their audience laugh with (and at) them. In the video for California, the third in their mini-series of music videos developed in reverse chronology around four singles and following on from Home and Another Way, they appear as two-bit metalheads. Then, in Blind, dressed-up as priests. Never afraid of the right joke, the right disguise, the witty comeback that sticks out like a sore thumb, on and off stage.
Love, balance, fulfillment, good humor and family, of course. Family is fundamental. Franck and Damien's family continues to grow: Matt and Donavon, other artists with whom were shared songs and experiences on tour… Their audience too, getting bigger by the minute, drawn in by their groove but also by their personalities. Raise Your Voice for Franck and Damien!
Alain Gardinier