Babaux and the Peacemakers - Keep Both Hands on the Wheel

Bitrate:320K/s
Year:2025
Time:37:02 
Size:85,0 MB 
Label:Guitar One Records 
Styles:Roots Rock/Swampy Bayou Blues/Acoustic Rooted Rock 
Art:Front 

Tracks Listing:
 1. Steal Your Love - 4:02
 2. Hardly Living - 4:08
 3. Wildflower - 4:03
 4. You Know it's True - 4:31
 5. Walk the Mile - 4:42
 6. Release Yourself - 4:10
 7. Take the Hand that I'm Given - 2:59
 8. Keep Both Hands on the Wheel - 4:44
 9. Something More to Give - 3:40

"Keep Both Hands On The Wheel" is the third release from Colorado based Babaux and The Peacemakers. The nine song set clocks in at 36 minutes with lots to offer fans of blues and roots music. It is the first release for the band on Guitar One Records and it is as solid as it gets. The band is led by Christian Basso (aka Babaux) who serves as the singer/songwriter and resonator guitar man. The Peacemakers are Eric Martinez on lead guitar, bassist Mike Davidov and drummer Jake Herman. To say the least it is a very competent outfit.
Steal You Love is the first track on the album and sets the pace for what is coming down the pike. The band has as much blues in them as they do anything else, but it's not a straight blues act by any means. This cut has strong shades of southern rock in it. Hints of The Allmann Brothers and the deep cuts of Lynyrd Skynyrd are quite apparent. Not so much the hits that have become part of the soundtrack of many of our lives, but the hidden gems that lie on the B sides! The songs that die hard music fans always gravitate to.
Speaking of the deep cuts... Take The Hand Given embodies that label impeccably. This 3 minute track is an absolute home run on every level. It is soulful and performed with patience and 100% conviction. The band lays deep in the pocket and moves gracefully from a whisper to a roar working the dynamics as hard as can be. The performance is quite loose without ever feeling like it's going to fall apart, walking that tightrope between solid and liquid as well as anybody can.
After multiple listens to this release the second track Hardly Living is the one that catches this writer's ear as the cut that embodies the overall vibe of this release. The band again is sitting in a deep pocket creating a fantastic pallet for a smoky unique vocal performance. Many singers force the raspy vocal out that seems to be just a relaxed delivery from vocalist Babaux. It makes me wonder if he's been smoking three packs of unfiltered Camel cigarettes since kindergarten. Whatever got him to this place is clearly working.
This album, just like their previous two releases, offers the listener something that is not only good, but quite unique and instantly identifiable. There is no shortage of  good bands, but a tremendous shortage of ones that are different. There is a patience and maturity to this band that is special. They have so many ingredients in the mix that it is hard to imagine a fan of any roots music wouldn't find something here to like. They embrace the WHOLE roots sound with both feet in the blues, jam bands, americana and pretty much anything else that came from the southern american music scene of the last 60 years. There are hints of Laurel Canyon influences in the songwriting, but Babaux and The Peacemakers are far more soulful. The presence of the slide guitar and deeply raspy vocal throughout brings it much closer to the Muscle Shoals sound than anything that came from west of the Mississippi. This is a band of old souls and this album is the strongest of their three releases. 
I highly recommend giving it a listen! ~ Luke Wolk

Keep Both Hands on the Wheel