Timo Arthur and Tamara Nicolai have become The Timo Arthur Trio with the addition of drummer Pete Maier and have released their first CD. The CD was produced by Richard L’Hommedieu at Midnight Circus Productions and he really captured the live sound of the trio. The addition of the drums adds extra depth to Timo’s amazing guitar playing and Tamara’s elegant upright bass.

For Fire’s Burnin’, the trio chose six original songs and four covers. The excellent original songs include three that have music by Arthur and lyrics by Nicolai: “Just Call Me,” “Follow Me, ” and the title track, “Fire’s Burnin'”. The other three by Arthur alone are “I’ll Keep Waiting,” “Note to Self” and my favorite original, “Six Strings Away.”

Non-original songs include two Willie Dixon numbers, a lesser known Fats Domino tune (“Sick and Tired”) and a cooking blues attributed to J Lane called “Money, Marbles and Chalk.” My favorite song on the entire CD is the version of Dixon’s “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover.” Timo sings his heart out on this one and both his guitar, Tamara’s bass and Meier’s drumming are perfect. The trio also does a fantastic job on Dixon’s “Good Understanding.”

In fact, the whole CD features amazing guitar work and bass work and the drumming is a vibrant extra dimension to what was already an ecellent modern blues sound. The original songs are solid and stand up well to the covers, proving that Arthur and Nicolai can write as well as perform other people’s work and thus increasing their versatility. The whole project sounds cohesive and has a clear and lively sound that is almost as good as seeing the trio live.

Catch the Timo Arthur Trio locally and buy the CD! You will enjoy it!