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"This one's for those who like a streak of insanity with their music, which singer-guitarist
Kevin Breit can always be counted on to provide. Add gravel-voiced howler John Dickie to Breit's Sisters Euclid
Band, and you get rock and jazz and blues and some sort of hairy, hauting sound all mixed together. "Gun" features a reverberating guitar and soulful vocal harmonies.
The infectious "Pralene" builds incessantly,
courtesy of some joyously noisy percussion. "Too Damn Big"
is a yell-athon that's either about life's problems or about a dog that won't get off the couch. Two treats are
the loud but tender "Faithfully" and the
lush and bouncy "Good Fay". This is a
wholly unique album, one without apparent influences. The best lyric is on "Love
to Stay, Gotta Go," in which the protagonist sings, 'I would've left you at
the altar, if you hadn't turned me down.' A-"
- Ed Symkus
Boston Tab
July 23, 2004
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"This truly is an "in-your-face," "no-holds-barred" blues record
that we encourage all who want "a little somethin' different" to latch on to."
- Sheryl and Don Crow
Music City Bluesletter
August 2004
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"Look at Kevin Breit's resume (Cassandra Wilson, k.d. lang, and Norah Jones, for whom
he both played and wrote songs), and you wouldn't dream of an album sounding anything like this. Strange, quirky
and engrossing songs with a Zappa garage-rock sensibility that crosses all American roots boundaries, it unnerves
and consumes in the same strain. After opening with a small child's voice and plucky piano jingle (think United
Airlines ads), the music plunges into a Stevie Wonder-in-Hell funk tirade, "Too
Damn Big." Just when you want to write this off as loud and obnoxious, Kevin
and company feed you enough melody and intricate instrumentation to suck you back in, a true sign of musical finesse.
"Gun" is a high-lonesome vibrato-guitar
dirge with some of the most canny guitar feedback solos since Queen. "L.A." could pass for War in their heyday. The cover art (front and back) in itself is a demented
treat."
- Steve Cagle
KVMR Radio (Nevada City, CA)
Aug/Sept 2004
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"Toronto session player Kevin Breit must have gotten tired of Norah Jones' sleepy
ballads and Cassandra Wilson's lush jazz stylings as he takes his own band -- the Sisters Euclid - on an ingenious
roller-coaster of sound.
Breit enlists harp man John Dickie and a host of other musicians to create a cacophony of blues, giving the tired
genre a desperately needed breath of fresh air. You know it'll be a strange listen when the first lyrics on opening
track "Too Damn Big" are "Get that dog off the furniture!" The exuberance on this Waits-like
disc slaps you in the face from beginning to end. 4 1/2 stars"
- Alan Small
Winnipeg Free Press
June 26, 2004
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"Slide-guitar sideman Kevin Breit made his name backing Norah Jones and Cassandra
Wilson, but his own band plays vintage-style blues-rock and they take the energy level up a notch on the live-off-the-floor
recording. Rather than re-tread the genre’s well-worn stylistic path, the Sisters drop plenty of weird-ass twists
and turns into the music. Breit’s unpredictability and versatility take up a large part of the picture, whether
he’s coaxing percussive grunts from his axe ("Too Damn Big"), sustaining feedback solos that sound like a theremin ("Gun") or navigating nimble-fingered jazz lines ("Good Day").
MOMENT OF TRUTH: "Pralene" (2:33-3:16)
This tongue-in-cheek rocker really takes off when the tempo shifts suddenly into high gear, cuing Breit’s break
into an Eastern mode that proves the perfect medium for his fluid slide work and eccentric sense of melody. 4 ½
stars"
- Guitar One
August, 2004
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"Best New Artist of the Week!
You will not believe your ears when you hear this genre-bending, live-off-the-floor sonic blues adventure. Bandleader
Kevin Breit (who has worked with Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson) returns with a huge sounding, monstrous junkyard
dog. With his immensely talented Sisters Euclid Band and brash blues-belter John Dickie, Kevin has produced a jaw-dropping,
string-bending stew of original songs and sounds. Incredible original songs--like absolutely nothing on the market
today. There isn't anything Breit can't do with six strings, playing Delta blues or rolling with tumbleweeds across
the range. The man is a versatile guitarist that crosses the boundaries of jazz, pop, rock, R&B and country.
He's famous for proving that even Canadians can feel the blues. A little bit groovy, a little bit funky and completely
filled with the blues. Put John Dickie and Kevin Breit and his band together and you've got John and the Sisters.
They are a wonderful collaboration that you could describe as crazy cosmic burnin' blues from another planet. Genres
get bent, volumes get adjusted (usually upward), songs come live off the floor, and happy, amazing and adventurous
chaos ensues. They have created a bluesy swagger that grows to extraordinary form when John does his serious barking
unlike anyone else. They don't make records like this; at least, until now, they never have."
- The John Shelton Ivany Top 21 #181
June 4, 2004 - June 11, 2004
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No women here - just guys groovin’ out. Calling a band "Blank and The Blanks"
usually means that there’s one over-the-top superstar and a few interchangeable folks hanging around behind them.
But not here.
To begin with, singer John Dickie is only an occasional member of Toronto-based blues band the Sisters Euclid.
His vocal stylings are a fine addition, though - he heats up boppin’ tracks and swampy grooves equally well.
Hmm. If it’s not Dickie, then the "name attraction" must be guitarist Kevin Breit - after all, he’s the
one who’s worked with Norah Jones (as the sticker on the package tells us). But even though he lays down some smokin’
solos, he’s not the centrepiece of this recording either.
So who’s the star here? The whole damn band. Whether it’s a standard jam like "Only
One" or an exotic piece like "Good Day," the Sisters’ live-off-the-floor near-epics will make you long to have the blues again."
4/5
- Jennifer Abel
Fast Forward
April 29, 2004
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"This new album by Kevin Breit is a blues smorgasbord and a mishmash of musical styles.
The Sisters here are actually not of the female variety, but rather, blues singer John Dickie teaming up with Breit’s
blues brothers - the Sisters Euclid band. Breit and Dickie wrote or co-wrote most of the tracks; the combination
is a blues experience unlike any other. Breit has garnered much attention over the last few years as a member of
Norah Jones’s band, having played on her last couple of albums. For the accomplished Hogtown guitarist, the move
from easy-listening jazz to back-alley blues was easy. The album opens with the funk-driven, loud song 'Too Damn Big,' which assaults your senses with its big sound that
echoes the godfather of soul, James Brown. From the honky-tonk blues piano on 'Only
One' to the sleepy, jazz-soaked, spacey blues arrangement on 'Gun,' to the spoken word of Breit’s son on the fun 15-second 'Bad Machine,' John and his Sisters is a spirited blues fusion that offers a little something for everyone."
- David McPherson
Exclaim!
May 07, 2004
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"Thank God there is more to Toronto blues than Jeff Healey. This genre-busting cosmic
blues CD dismantles the 12-bar style, throws it in the air and lets the pieces fall where they may. The songs are
then swept up and put back together with pipe cleaners and chewing gum - with glorious results. Most songs start
off with all of the traditional elements intact but, through improvisation, the end result is usually twisted into
something completely different. It's not impossible for them to start off with a barrelhouse boogie and, by the
end, be dragging through a New Orleans funeral dirge with a singing saw leading the charge. Kevin Breit's (Norah
Jones, Cassandra Wilson) sonic swamp blast is worth the price of admission alone."
- Johnson Cummins
Montreal Mirror
May, 2004
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"Breit achieved 'fame' for his songwriting with multi-Grammy winner Norah Jones, Cassandra
Wilson, and to a much lesser extent for his work with the incredible Harry Manx (who is playing the Omaha Blues
Society’s Blues Cruise later this month). While not yet a household name, Breit’s music has been heard at least
once by every American (able to hear). It’s no wonder; he’s an incredible talent.
On his latest release, a solo effort disguised as ‘John and the Sisters’, Breit delivers a blues based album that older music fans will be able to sink their teeth into
without having to be dumbed down for mass consumption. Inevitably we’ve all purchased an album that we adored upon
initial listening and quickly never played again. The best albums are the records that unfold upon repeated listening.
This album promises to be one that non-traditionalist blues fans are going to be playing repeatedly for decades.
Breit bends and perverts musical boundaries to create songs that challenge the listener. The opening track, Too Damn Big, is a song that Aerosmith should have done on their
latest album. Much like a Tyler/Perry composition, Too Damn Big, is a super funky blues number that cuts across genres with a Tom Waits sort of bite to it. By
the time Breit reaches the track, Good Day, he’s
transmogrified into a tasty John Mellencamp sort of approach.
If you experiment with one 'blues' album this year, this album is a five star gem that has that great ‘FM blues based classic rock sound’ we grew up on. What’s better,
the performances are exceptional and the songs are excellent. Yes, upon initial listening it’s going to be coming
at you from left field but it’s quite good and worthy of your consideration."
- Rick Galusha
Homer's Music
May 10, 2004
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"Produced by Norah Jones sideman Kevin Breitt, John
and the Sisters self-titled debut is blocks from anything normal; call it screw-loose
blues. 'Too Damn Big' rumbles to life as rough-hewn
John Dickie shouts, 'Get that dog off the furniture!'
That’s precisely what this album is all about: misbehaving. This track stubbornly refuses to sit and beg; it just
takes what it wants. And the funky 'L.A.' will make
fans of War roar."
- Tony Peyser
Santa Monica Mirror
May 12 - 18, 2004
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"Any preconceptions one might have about Kevin Breit based on his work with Norah
Jones and Cassandra Wilson would be worthless in the face of the acid-washed yet crisply presented Blues found
on John and the Sisters. The principals here are
the Sisters Euclid -- Breit's moonlighting musical collective and Soul shouter John Dickie -- who have teamed up
for a set of uptown Blues originals that toe the line between raw and refined, contemporary and traditional, Delta
and urban. Breit's guitar style is a sinewy blend of the many permutations of the Blues, while Dickie's voice can
be as raggedly evocative as the Blues masters of old and as cleanly precise as the students of now. Even played
off the cuff and with an air of edgy improvisation, the musical prowess of the Sisters gives the stripped down
soundscape a roughly polished elegance. From the Sweet Pea Atkinson-fronts-Phish Blues jam of "Too Damn Big" to the New Orleans swing of "Pralene" to the carnival Blues of "Good
Day," John and the Sisters take a broad and satisfying tour of the Blues."
- Brian Baker
Cincinnati CityBeat
May 10, 2004
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"Kevin Breit has made his name backing up female singers with an MOR or laid-back
jazz bent (Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Céline Dion, etc.), so for his own material, he's hired John Dickie,
who has the most testosterone-fuelled voice on this side of the Atlantic from Tom Jones. Dickie is billed as a
special guest, joining Breit and his fellow Orbit Room denizens The Sisters Euclid to shout out some fat, strutting
blues-rock. The political and socially conscious angle to some of the lyrics is balanced by a healthy dose of silliness
-- where else will you encounter a trailer-park queen by the name of "Pralene"? Breit's guitars, whether twangy, gauzy or Fripp/Eno hazy, shape the music in unexpected
ways. The songs can occasionally get long-winded, but mostly, this Sister act is a gas."
- MD
Eye Weekly
May 6, 2004
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"This union of veterans has resulted in one of the best albums of the year. Dickie's
cutting edge blues belting is the perfect match for this over-the-cliff band."
- John Valenteyn
Toronto Blues Society
May, 2004
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"NorthernBlues Music started exposing Breit’s wizardry to a wider audience last year,
releasing a magical collaboration with fellow picker Harry Manx on the wonderful Jubilee. Now they have alchemized another potent musical potion by teaming the Sisters with Canadian blues
shouter John Dickie. Proof of this project’s kismet factor is that it was recorded virtually live in three days..."
- Michael Ross
Puremusic
May, 2004
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"...as in Toronto blues belter John Dickie and the Sisters Euclid Band, the instrumental
outfit led by guitarist Kevin Breit. A versatile musician (of Folk Alarm and SuperGenerous), Breit hit paydirt
playing on Norah Jones's two albums (she performs his song "Humble Me" on her latest). This live-off-the-floor album is a spasmodic affair, lurching from Tom Waits-style
junkyard noise on "Gun" to The Band-inspired
"A Better Way". But it does include one
genuine gem: the stirring ballad "Faithful,"
a nod to Little Feat's Lowell George."
- Nicholas Jennings
Inside Entertainment, National Post
April, 2004
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"Together, John Dickie and the Sisters Euclid have created a blues/rock program that
draws from their shared backgrounds. Fun oozes all over the place."
- Jim Santella
All About Jazz
April, 2004
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"Kevin Breit's duet album last year was simply a punch in the mouth. Simple, in your
face and a jawdropper. After lending his talents in an understated way to Norah Jones and other top liners, he
decided to stay home with his family and pull some rabbits out of his hat. The first of these rabbits is another
jawdropper. It's supposed to be a blues record, but don't let that limit your thinking and listening. Breit simply
steps out on his own, for himself and comes up with such a monstrous hit in the head that this set is simply going
to be a must for everyone. It's amazing and there's nothing else to say. "
- Chris Spector, Editor and Publisher
Midwest Record Recap
April, 2004
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