After a long term studio work which spanned all accross 2020, Amaury Faivre gets ready to release his first solo album. 11 originals tracks, in which he meets again with the acoustic blues that inspired him so much in his teen years. The sound is therefore very roots, with an omnipresent inspiring harmonica, a rough and sincere voice, and guitar and dobro chords played in fingerpicking for most of them, in the long tradition of the Mississippi delta.

The release party will take place, if the sanitary conditions allows it, at the Caveau du Coeur d’Or in Chexbres (Switzerland), or on a Facebook livestream if the conditions allows it !

He worked once again for this album with his good friends Luc Naville and Christophe Losberger for the photos, and Steve Corrao for mastering at Sage Audio in Nashville (TN).

Some novelties for this beginning of autumn :

- 2 videos recorded during the radio show Paradiso on la Première, 2 tracks from the album, Crazy Old Man and Catch As Catch Can.

- outdoor shooting of On A Hill, to enjoy the last sunny days before winter.

- back to our participation to the 2018 Sierre Blues Festival with this shooting of You Just Can't Go Wrong.

- 2 podcasts, the radio show  Spéciale Blues de Radio MODUL on Sep 13, and the Night Live PNZ de Radio Tonic, May 2.

- and at last, a new album is being composed and written, with a more roots bluesy sound, with a release planned this winter.

Les magazines spécialisés Blues Magazine, Tempo et Soulbag font des critiques du premier album Crazy Old Man de Amaury Faivre Duo.

Blues Magazine, article here :

"It's very well played, and easy to listen to. They are impressive on stage and captivate very quickly their audience. (...) This is a duet to follow, and you have to go see them."

Tempo, article here :

"The album is first and foremost a record that is directly inspired by the influence of American folk music, whose authentic charm is revealed through the sobriety of the arrangement"

Soulbag, article here :

"Amaury Faivre and his partner Yves Staubitz do their business of folk blues (...) it's a beautiful atmosphere that settles"

Amaury Faivre Duo touring this summer :

Jun 13 : Besançon (FR), place de la Révolution for World Blood Donor Day

Jun 15 : Sierre (CH), Château de Villa for the Sierre Blues Festival

Jun 15 : Sierre (CH), Restauran La Villa for the Sierre Blues Festival

Jun 15 : Bern (CH), Bal Blues Kick the Basics

Jun 16 : Poligny (FR), DéLire en Revermont Festival

Jun 21: Cusance (FR), La Source Bleue

Jul 7 : Orgelet (FR), BAO Festival

Jul 19 : Nyon (CH), Rive Jazzy Festival

Aug 1 : Levier (FR),  la Forêt Camping

Aug 2 : Genève (CH), L'Estivale du Rhône

Aug 7 : Lons-le-Saunier (FR), La Guinguette at the Parc des Bains

Amaury Faivre Duo is invited to a series of concerts "Blues and Bar" with the Salaise Blues Festival.

Mar 22 : Saint-Alban-du-Rhône, Salle Polyvalente, 19h

Mar 28  : Bar le 3, Valence

Mar 29 : Jazz en Bièvre, Château de Montseveroux, 20h30

Mar 30 : Le Plan B, Beaurepaire, 20h30

Apr 4  : Hall Blues Club, Pélussin, 20h30

Digital Native Associated is a company that promotes Savoy local scene. Alexandre publishes right before Amaury Faivre Duo's participation to the Criou Blues Festival an interview in 10 questions. Full interview here.

In addition to airing the track Crazy Old Man daily since the album release, Option Musique invites the duo two times in a row in its studios. Option Rösti on Feb. 15th is a one hour show for promotion of Swiss artists who are invited all along the day. The duo had the occasion to play live two titles from the album, On a hill and Playing Tricks On You. The album is then selected for the Swiss Album for the week between Feb. 25th and 28th, with daily diffusions of music and interviews, and copies of the album offered daily.

The local Geneva radio Léman Bouge is the first one to answer the call, and immediately air the album by selecting it as the "Album of the Week". "The refined Crazy Old Man will not only delight blues fans, but also all the ones who know how to open up their ears. A tremendous success !". Option Musique follows the lead by airing daily the title Crazy Old Man. At last, Radio Swiss Jazz airs Hell on Wheels, Yearned For You et Catch as Catch Can.

Fred Delforge gives on the Zicazic blues blog a review of the album Crazy Old Man and selects it for being album Zicazic of the week in January 21st to 27th, 2019.

"Winner of the 2017 Swiss Blues Challenge, the singer/harmonicist/guitarist Amaury Faivre and the guitar player Yves Staubitz have been knowing each other from a decade. After having created an electric band, they turn toward an acoustic duo format in 2013. Proposing a music in which folk and jazz flavor the blues, the two companions reached the semi-finals at the International Blues Challenge in January, 2018, in Memphis and haven't gone unnoticed in Norway during the European Blues Challenge where they earned tickets to perform at the Sierre Blues Festival,  Vallemagia Magic Blues or Cahors Blues Festival. For its first album, Amaury Faivre Duo chose to follow the lead of Keb’ Mo, Eric Bibb or Leadbelly and to propose us a dozen tracks among which we notice a single cover, the famous Summertime by Gershwin, that they appropriated beautifully" (...)

Full article here

The duo will be in the France Bleu Besançon studios on December 1st to present the brand new album, in the radio show ça vaut le détour, animated at 5pm Monday to Friday by Marie-Ange Pinelli and Thierry Emme.

Crazy Old Man is out ! 11 original titles, written by Amaury Faivre and Letty Girardet, plus 1 cover, with an acoustic sound and an orchestration very true to the stage performances of Amaury Faivre Duo. The release is paired with a new full website in the colors of the album.

Track list :

Hell On Wheels

Crazy Old Man

My Neighbor

Yearned For You

Summertime

Sunny Side Walk

Playing Tricks On You

You Just Can't Go Wrong

Catch As Catch Can

On A Hill

It's Time For Me

Far From Home

After almost one month of mixing, the album is finally sent for mastering to the excellent Steve Corrao from the Sage Audio Mastering studio in Nashville. Graphics are given to Benjamin Staubitz and the keyword is sobriety.

Amaury Faivre Duo's first album will be recorded in Studio Du Four in Vulbens. This studio created by Amaury Faivre has been especially built for recording acoustic musics. The duo locks up in it for the end of summer to prepare an album that will count a dozen tracks with a vast majority of original songs.

The Swiss Blues Society, organizer of the Swiss Blues Challenge, organizes in the person of its director, blues fan and photograph, Christophe Losberger, a series of three interviews with the duo, after each of the challenges the duo went through, the Swiss Blues Challenge in Basel on Jun. 2017, the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in Jan. 2018 and at last the European Blues Challenge in Hell (Norway) in Mar. 2018, to develop all the aspects of these three levels of competitions, and what the duo will keep as personal and musical experiences.

Full Interviews here

Here are the concert dates for the summer to come :

22 mai : Baden Blues Festival, Baden (Switzerland)

16 juin : Festival Saônorités, Saône (25, France)

22 juin : Fête de la Musique à Geneva (Suisse), Parc des Bastions

29 juin : Summerblues Festival, Bâle (Switzerland), pour la finale du Swiss Blues Challenge

4-5 juillet : Sierre Blues Festival, Sierre (Switzerland)

6 juillet : Gena Festival, Avully (Switzerland)

11 juillet : Magic Blues Festival, Vallemaggia (Switzerland)

13-14 juillet : Cahors Blues Festival, Cahors (46, France)

21 juillet : les Estivales du Pré la Rose, Montbéliard (25, France)

During its stay in the US for the 34th International Blues Challenge, the duo is invited on January 16th in the famous Ditty TV studios in Memphis to record a set of 7 live videos. The duo is enchanted by such a quality of work, image and sound, as well as by the team's availability, reliability and efficiency.

The website blues.gr and Michael Limnios publish an interview of Amaury Faivre in English, with very deep questions in particular about the meaning of blues in the actual society.

"What do you learn about yourself from the Blues people and culture ? What does the blues mean to you ?

The blues is singular for its multiple meanings. Of course, it is a genre of music, but also a feeling, a culture, a sound, a shuffle rhythm, a six notes scale and a 12-bar musical structure, as long as a color !

Working around the blues, it can have for me any of these aspects depending on the occasion, but the particular one that appeals to me is improvisation. Not only improvisation as a nice guitar solo in the middle of a song, but as a global state of mind. The person who sings the blues is not just singing but telling a story, and this means that he has to enter in real communication with the people he is telling it to. And this communication, this dialogue is made possible through improvisation, which is the ability to feel and hear what is really going on right now. And this is both the hardest and the simplest thing to do, and it teaches me a lot about myself. So, I honestly learn a lot more about myself from practicing the blues than from the blues people and culture" (...)

Full article here

The duo flies to Memphis for the 34th IBC, or International Blues Challenge, from Jan. 16th to 20th. 260 bands from all over the world animate the famous Beale Street clubs. The duo seizes the occasion to record a series of videos in the Ditty TV studios, and participates to two showcases in addition to the IBC sets. After two successful selections, Amaury et Yves manage to obtain a place in the semi-finals, but won't rejoin the final, shared by only 10 bands and 10 solos/duos. The winners are Keeshea Pratt Band in the Band category, and Kevin “B.F.” Burt in the Solo/Duo category.

 Here during the Sem le blues festival on September 29th, Pascal Merlin and the team of the monthly magazine La Tête Dans Le Public publishes an Interview from Amaury Faivre Duo.

"LTDP : How do you move from jazz guitar studies to the blues ?

Amaury : As I started playing harmonica first, I alway played blues, and then I learned guitar. I needed to understand the link between all American kinds of music. It is through jazz harmony that I established this link. I use this harmony filter when listening to music and also in the way I play, one can hear I studied jazz.

LTDP : You play as a duo and with a full band, which do you prefer ?

Yves : Amaury prefers the duo because the acoustic guitar playing is really pushed forward. I used to play electric only, I had passed 30 years with an electric guitar, and now it's been 5 years with the acoustic thanks to Amaury, and I can't say which I prefer, I would they complement each other, they are similar instruments but which a completely different approach. In the band there is inertia and when you want to change the atmosphere, it takes some time, while in duo it is very immediate" (...)

Amaury Faivre Duo will represent Switzerland in Memphis during the International Blues Challenge Januray 16th to 20th. They obtained this opportunity by winning the Swiss Blues Challenge.

In the November edition, the very specialized Jazztime magazine publishes a full article about Amaury Faivre Duo.

"No-frilled, very improvised and great charisma.

Amaury Faivre and Yves Staubitz won Swiss Blues Challenge this year in Basel. Their music is influenced by blues, jazz and folk. And their desire for improvisation.

Playing harmonica opened him the door for the world and the blues. At 8, he blows his father's harmonica for the first time. Ever since this little instrument followed him everywhere - as long as the blues pioneers he discovers, like Robert Johnson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightning Hopkins or John Lee Hooker. One of his great success has been the Prix du Public at the Jeunesses Musicales de France Challenge in 2001 with the duo White and Blues with Sylvain Dubrez. Then Amaury Faivre started gigging with bands like Chris Demolition Blues, Bluesingale, Alfred Massaï or the Soul'd Out Trio" (...)

Full article here

The duo has its first TV appearance on the Swiss channel  Lancy TV, which publishes a reportage, about the Swiss Blues Challenge and to announce the Rock & Dusty Festival which will be on Oct. 13th at the villa Tachini in Geneva.

Watch the video here

After a beautiful final round, Amaury Faivre Duo was attributed the Swiss Blues Challenge victory on Friday Jun. 30th, 2017 in Basel, which gives them a ticket for representing Switzerland during the European Blues Challenge (Norway) and the International Blues Challenge (Memphis) ! The bands who disputed the final were Manu Hartmann and the City Blues Band, Dominic Schoemaker and Estella Benedetti & Michael G Band.