Singer/songwriter Paul Benoit has been touring for 20 years with his own compositions, and compilations with other musicians.  His musical knowledge has been expanded by the musical collaborations he has had like the electric/acoustic band Crosseyed and the acoustic ensemble Hanuman that brought a brilliant mix of african rhythms with jazz, bluegrass, funk, country, and rock n roll; and from that arose an original sound.  Today Benoit releases his 5th solo album, Bluebird, that developed and was recorded in a small paradise village, Casa Tortuga, on the beautiful beaches on the Pacific in El Salvador.  These peaceful surroundings stimulated self reflection and put its stamp on Paul Benoit.  While listening to his disc you feel the calm atmosphere of reflection and sometimes melancholy brought into your living room.  The intimate and dreamy opener and title song, Bluebird, starts bluesy but very soulful like Sam Cooke mixed with the moving singing of Benoit in a duet with the high female vocals of Janne Jacobsen.  The catchy acoustic guitar riff that brightens All My Friends Are Crazy, like the narative of a best Brenden Crocker.  Benoit  keeps a tight rein so the light acoustic rocker maintains modesty, and this testifies that it is on a high level.  There's No Fallin is another pearl that embraces you in all its warmth, with beautiful guitar and vocal syncopation and a very rich worldly wisdom:  you cannot fall deeper than the ground.  Bob Dylan is definitely in the musical collection of Paul if you hear Let Me Down Easy, but it is the sound of 12 strings going solo which gives this song a very mysterious tone.  If Love is a Stranger waltzes slowly and drunk through the living room, and pulls and pushes your soul with sacred slide guitar.  Creating atmosphere with frequent easy accents is a very strong quality of Benoit.  In Call You Out, he keeps your attention with easy finger snaps and a repetitive guitar riff.  Benoit's new album, Bluebird, stays interesting until the last track, Sad Melody, a piece of folky singer songwriting, and has to be in the collection of everyone who likes the singer/songwriter genre and who enjoys brooding lyrics refreshed with thoughtful virtuoso guitar playing.  An absolute recommendation.

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