Andreas Diehlmann Band Cold Wind On A Dark Black Nigh (LP)

(Mountain Meadow Studio) 9 tracks

On the cover, which fits the album title perfectly, Andreas Diehlmann walks through pouring rain across a night-lit street, his guitar case firmly in hand. The guitarist and singer is not quite as alone and forsaken as that impression suggests, however, for on his new album too he was joined by his trusted companions, Jörg Sebald on bass and Martin Gunkel on drums. With "Cold Wind On A Dark Black Night", following "That Old Blues Again" (2024), the trio once again delivers a timelessly great-sounding blues-rock album. It stomps and shuffles, and the German Blues Award-winning musician and his sidemen set off with incisive riffs and a mighty 'roar'. Diehlmann masters every facet of blues-rock, celebrating a merciless stomper like "Hey Man" over a driving chain-gang rhythm with just as much verve as a wonderful ballad like "Alone". "Thunderbolt", "Miss Fortune" and the title song prove, with concentrated dynamics, to be perfect blues-rockers that would liven up any AOR station. As a guitarist he has been playing in the top flight of the German blues scene for years. As a singer with a distinctive, throaty, raw voice he keeps growing stronger, and as a songwriter he has long been first-class. With "Cold Wind On A Dark Black Night", Diehlmann and his band finally qualify for the Champions League. Groovy and subtly funky, the band plays "The Blues" and meshes smoothly with the refined guitar licks that Diehlmann coaxes from his six strings. A song like "Carol" – the second ballad alongside the slow blues "Alone" – adds variety to Diehlmann's blues-rock spectrum. Over a carpet of floating Hammond B3 sounds, the guitarist embroiders gorgeously soulful licks worthy of a Peter Green. The melancholy number lodges itself in your ears at once, embracing you with incredibly beautiful, refined and perfect guitar artistry – a song whose wonderful guitar ornaments you could listen to forever. Around the two ballads the band goes full throttle with showpieces like "Long Way Home". Powerful and dynamic, the trio builds up a head of steam, and Diehlmann's superbly timed solos let the machine take off. Occasional nods to the pillars of blues-rock do nothing to change the long-since independent, mature, passionate and, above all, brilliantly produced sound of the Andreas Diehlmann Band. After Andreas Diehlmann and his band were already voted Best Band at the German Blues Awards in 2022, they won the accolade again in 2025 – plus the Best Album 2025 award for "That Old Blues Again". Once you have heard "Cold Wind On A Dark Black Night", you won't need to guess who the favourite in these categories is this year. Given the album's outstanding quality, one wishes the band a never-ending long way home and even more cold wind on dark black nights. (Text: Uwe Meyer)
Andreas Diehlmann – vocals/guitars/organ
Martin Gunkel – drums
Jörg Sebald – bass
Total playing time 40:13