Roots rock from New Orleans - review by Wayne Bledsoe, 1999

HIS VOICE HAS WORLDLY INFLUENCE
There is something hard to pin down in the music of Andi Hoffmann & B-Goes. On a bed of easy Delta rhythm, Hoffmann sings poetic songs in an odd combination of Lou Reed disaffection and folk singer earnestness.
Then there's the accent Is that Cajun? No, not quiteThe group, which will perform today at Barley's,is actualy combination of NewOrleans natives, and the leader is Swiss.
'New Orleans is a fascinating place."says Hoffmann. It's different tban anything I've ever seen before Just driving through you feel a special energy.
It's known for jazz, but music is just in the air. It's part of everyday life."
Hoffmann, who grew up in Bern, Switzerland, and spent time throughout Europe,moved to New Orleans in l993.
He grew up absorbing British and American pop music which he taped from albums borrowed from the local youth center. As a teenager he formed pop groups and eventually became a sucessful recording artist in his native oountry.
However, Hoffmann always had a traveling bone.He studied in London and spent time in Berlin.
Switzerland always seemed like a very narrow place to me'" says Hoffmann. "I think a lot of Swiss people have a longing to leave and see a larger part of the world."
Hoffmann says he's absorbed something from everywhere he has lived.
Until he seetled in New Orleans, he says his English speaking accent came from his stay inEngland."When I first came here I hated the way the American accent sounded," says Hoffmann. Now, Hoffmann speaks and sings with a voice that has definitely absorbed bits of the Delta dialect.
Hoffmann's new album with the B-Goes,"Basil for Nino," is an affecting surprise. It draws influences from everywhere. And its instrumentation incorporates twangy electric guitars, Cajun fiddles and accordions, trombones and even includes a few subtle Mediterreanean elements Somehow it all seem natural. Hoffmann says he isn't done exploring the United States.. He says until moving here his information on the United States came from popular films. The week before he arrived in the country, he saw the film "Bound for Glory", the story of Woodey Guthries journey from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to California in the 1930s."There were so many trains in that movie,"says Hoffmann. "When I got here and saw my first train it just blew me away." Wayne Bledsoe, Knoxville News Sentinel, October 1st, 1999