Ray Black & The Flying Carpets Downtown Ride (LP)

(Rhythm Bomb Records) 14 tracks

The Flying Carpets already achieved considerable success in the scene with their debut album “Better Way To Move” (2018). Singer and double bassist Rawand Baziany, who wrote almost all of the 14 songs, as he did on the previous album, is well known and popular in the international rockabilly and rhythm ‘n’ blues community as the operator and engineer of the vintage analog studio “Black Shack Recordings,” but he is also an enviably talented songwriter and musician. Together with his bandmates Bone (lead guitar), Pieri (rhythm and baritone guitar), and Boz Doz (drums, percussion), he has assembled 14 new gems on “Downtown Ride” that skillfully blend the early Sun Records DNA with country, western, rockin' blues, and rock ‘n’ roll, both in terms of their wonderfully gritty sound and their arrangements. With exuberant enthusiasm, the band works its way through a rousing series of songs that combine all the best aspects of music from the 1930s to the 1950s. A great second album!