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With three self-released albums to their name, hardworking three piece Wille And The Bandits have built a reputation way beyond their Cornish roots, with extensive touring, including with the likes of Deep Purple, Quo, and Bonamassa through to the John Butler Trio, honing their skills.
With a modus operandi based around the ethos of Cream and the Jimi Hendix Experience, the album was recorded ‘live’ on analogue tape at The Grange Studios in Norfolk using 1950/60′s equipment, and while I’ve heard other bands of the genre adopt a similar tack, few – in my opinion – have achieved such refreshing and dynamic results.
There’s a real vibrancy throughout the set that, without shifting from the band’s core ethos moves effortlessly from hard to soft, and from acoustic to electric. Guitarist/singer Wille Edwards’ lap steel works adds a rootsy feel, and his vocals have a wonderful ‘period’ coarseness and urgency.
The material is uncomplicated, and works all the better for it. Yes, there’s some infectious soaring guitar work on the opener ‘Miles Away’, but what it makes it work is it’s a great song. And yes, the band may be time locked (‘Hots Rocks’ perhaps not unsurprisingly has a Stones groove, as does ’1970′ – an epitaph to the era), but a well written song will transcend the decades and Steal is packed with them.