Published by Jim Hynbes on Making A Scene.
Blues Sky represents a shift for singer-songwriter Randy Lee Riviere, teaming again with the acclaimed producer Kevin McKendree who produced, engineered, and mixed the album. The last time we visited Riviere he and McKendree delivered a western tinged Americana effort, 2021’s Wyoming. Before that, under the moniker Mad Buffalo Riviere issued four albums over the course of roughly two decades. Riviere is an outspoken environmentalist and every album, going back to the Mad Buffalo run, assails development and gentrification. Here we have “Needles,” with its line – “Our American dream is red, white, blue, and green.” Yet the prevailing takeaway from this album is Riviere’s transformation to a stomping blues-rocker.