Fiona Boyes - Box & Dice

Box & Dice is a studio album by Australian blues musician Fiona Boyes, released in March 2015 via Blue Empress Records and Only Blues Music.

Fiona Boyes is an Australian blues musician. She has been recording for more than 25 years and tours regularly in Australia, the United States, and Europe. She plays both acoustic and electric, covering pre-war Delta slide, laments, single chord Mississippi Hills grooves, Piedmont finger picking, New Orleans barrelhouse, Memphis soul, classic Chicago, Texas swing, and the uptown sound of the West Coast.

After several years focusing on overseas performance, Fiona Boyes returns home to record for the first time with her long-time Australian rhythm section Mark Grunden (drums/percussion) & Dean Addison (double bass). The result is a brand new studio album Box & Dice.

Described as Bonnie Raitt's evil twin, and with 4 consecutive USA Blues Music Award nominations for both her acoustic and electric playing and nine previous albums under her own name, distinctive and authoritative blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Fiona Boyes' music always draws on a myriad of traditional regional styles from pre-war acoustic ragtime to the classic blues sounds of New Orleans, Chicago and Memphis.  On Box & Dice she narrows the focus to Mississippi with a stripped back album that is proudly down-home.

Digging deep into her guitar collection, Box & Dice features some of Fiona's more unusual instruments including 6 & 4 string cigar box guitars (played either bottle neck style or using miniature whiskey bottles as make-shift slides), and a rare National Reso-lectric electric baritone guitar. 

A few classic blues, from Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam & Bessie Smith, plus 8 original songs, ranging from a tribute to famous Florida juke joint Bradfordville Blues Club ("Juke Joint on Moses Lane"), personal tips from friend and mentor, Howling Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin ("Walking Round Money"), a heartfelt love song to New Orleans ("Lousiana").

Check out the tracks:  “Juke Joint On Moses Lane”; “Walking Round Money”; “Easy Baby”; and “Smokestack Lightning”.

This album is on compact disc housed in a gatefold cardboard tri-fold sleeve, pressed in Australia.