Guitars and Life

It's been an age since I've done an album review on here - largely as I've not been buying music much recently.  Anyway.... Joe Bonamassa Redemption Now Joe Bonamassa with this album really nails it.  He has written 12 excellent songs.  His band has to be quiet simply one of the best on the planet too.  He is the king of blues rock currently.  From the start of Evil Mama with the hooky riff, stabby horn fills and great vocals you know this is going to be great.  I do simply believe it is his best yet. The solos of course are his tour de force.   The headliner stand outs for me are Redemption (the title track) and The Ghost of Macon Jones. If you like Bluesy Rock or Rocky Blues or just great rock music go listen.  It really is top album. Jeff Back Live at the Hollywood Bowl What more can you say about Jeff Beck?  One of the, if not the, most original and inventive rock guitarists of the moment.  Where many many others mig...

Or BCCIV as it is billed on the cover which features a fiery phoenix rising from the flames - very apt. A few years back it looked like that was it from BCC as they collapsed in a bunch of disgruntled tweets between band members.  Essentially Joe Bonamassa saw his solo career as his prime objective, Glenn Hughes saw it differently and when Joe declined to extensively tour the last BCC album that became an impasse.  Joe left, taking Derek Sherinan (keyboards) off into his solo band.  Glenn and drummer Jason Bonham briefly rekindled in a band called California Breed which Jason then similarly didn't tour the album off before that collapsed. We move on... Glenn gets inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of Deep Purple (he was in the post Ian Gillan Mark 3 version of the band.  He was also in the short lived non-Blackmoore Mark 4 lineup).  Joe calls him up to congratulate him, they make a dinner date and shortly they are talking about a new BCC album and at Gle...

Seems hardly anytime when I waxing lyrical about thier last offering Folklore. This is a highly credible effort, the growing membership bringing new talents notably the string work and arrangements via Rachel Hall have added greatly for me. If you've heard Folklore this is very much part 2 and that very British prog rock with folk overtones runs through much. Experimental Gentlemen is a favourite of mine but each of the 8 tracks is well written, constructed and performed. Meadowland has be lying in a field by a brook with swallows swooping overhead.... beautiful.  Dave Longton's vocals are brilliant throughout with that slight Genesis feel but then possibly that's the hole I think Big Big Train fill in the space a truly British old style prog rock band. Highly recommended.

Every now and then you get an album and you find it spends so long in the car before you replace it.  Bear's Den Red Earth and Pouring Rain is just such an example. Take Snow Patrol, City and Colour and mix together.  That's Bear's Den but also the quality and quantity of terrific tracks on this album mean I struggle to pick any stand out tracks.  Red Earth and Pouring Rain itself, Greenwoods Bethlehem, My Jerusalem, Dew on the Vine, Broken Parable.... best stop there I'll list the whole album! By the smallest of margins my suggestion to listen to is Auld Wives... love the bass on this.

Gordon Giltrap and Paul Ward - The Last of England The really good news about this release is that Gordon is well enough to be talking about it.  He's been through the ringer over the last 18 months or so with a cancer issue needing some big surgery.  That he is back at all is a real pleasure to say.   And this is a great Gordon Giltrap release.  He's teamed up with Paul Ward and with Paul's orchestral knowledge on the keyboards this takes Gordon's guitar skills to a new dimension.  There are parts where you try to just turn off the slightly obvious synthy strings and imagine this in an Albert Hall like setting with a large orchestra.  There are others too that are a real hark back to Gordon's band albums with some really terrific proggy like stuff.   Really terrific album which my wife also says is incredibly soothing when on a long drive around South London the other day.  Search out A Promise Fulfilled - terrific progressive folk rock track. ...

Time for some album reviews. Fear - Marillion I've been putting off writing this review since I have to say.... for me this isn't a classic brilliant album.  It is very good but for me this isn't Marillion at their best.  Odd isn't it first time in thirty years they get back into the top 5 with a release and get rave reviews and I'm left a bit like... hmmm... it's really good but... but what? It is an epic work, there in lies some of it's problem, also reading how it was put together with the band working with long time collaborator Mike Hunter in the producers chair.  From my reading of the interviews it goes something like this.... the band jam on stuff for hours - Hunter captures is all then starts to construct the pieces with the band from that and then they add in the details etc.   For me it then means that these long pieces constructed in this way don't always for me as an entire "song" hang together.  Now Marillion have always ha...

Gilded - Blair Dunlop I've enjoyed Blair's work since his first release Blight and Blossom.  Now I sit to write this I should actually play that back to back with House of Jacks (his sophomore effort) and Gilded, it'd be interesting to compare them as he has developed. Who is Blair?  Well his dad is Ashley Hutchings which if you know anything about British Folk Rock is something of a legend in that genre having been a key member of Fairport Convention, Steeley Span and the leader of The Albion Band for years.  Having his Dad's connections helps with people like Martin Simpson and Richard Thompson being amongst those who've tutored/mentored Blair.  Oh yes, if you are a film buff Blair played the young Willy Wonker in the Tim Burton remake of the Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What about this one then?  Well it is a move into more rockier less folk territory with more electric guitar, similar to the last Albion Band offering when Blair t...

Joe Bonamassa - Blues of Desperation I ordered this a day or so before the gig previously reviewed.  It arrived a few days after.  So I'd heard some of the tunes at the gig before hearing them on the recorded version.  Overall a terrific album, possibly his best yet, in terms of performance, song writing, sound and energy.  The album kicks off with uptempo blues rocker This Train and then into one of the albums highlights the Zep like riff laden Mountain Climbing.  These set the scene for the early part of the album - tight superbly executed blues rock.  The tone of all instruments is to die for frankly Kevin Shirley is undoubtedly one of the best producers around in terms of getting a band to all individually sound superb. Drive the pre-release single is a slower more Chris Rea/Mark Knopfler sounding gentle sound with some great percussion playing.  No place for the lonely is another highlight tipping it's hat strongly in the direction of Gary Moo...

Hello welcome to the first post of 2016. Sorry it has been so quiet on here but I was ill throughout December and frankly did very little! Quick update on some Music Reviews on the CDs, DVDs etc. I got for Christmas. Newton Faulkner - Human Love. Terrific album.  Newton has moved on and developed as an artist.  His first video release of a track from this album before it was released in November was  Get Free .  On this Newton sits in a chair singing whilst hacking off his famous dreadlocks with a pair of scissors.  He now has a new short dreads piled on top of his head look.  However this is a definitive metaphor about his moving forward as an artist. This new album has more electric guitar tones on it and a different more band orientated vibe.  However the second half is a selection of the tracks re-recorded as pure one man solo songs, no doubt so that he can show you that if you see him live he can still play these tracks in his one-man-show...

Without a doubt this little album review shows my eclectic music tastes.  I find it funny how even more so these days stuff is labelled this of that, Folk, Alt-Country, Metal, Speedmetal, Deathmetal... blah blah blah.  Do I like it?  That should be the only question to ask yourself really.  But the marketeers esp in this online age try to pigeon-hole us so they can then push "targetted" ads into our facebook feed, spotify suggestions list etc.  Frankly just suggest random stuff - in my humble opinion they'd sell more.  Say I'm a young person who's been brought up on modern R&B and that's what I listen to - then Spotify throws some Country my way and I like it - but I've never listened to or downloaded country - am I more likely to go off and seek out more of this new interest?    Well that's my thoughts but then ... I don't run a music company or streaming service or get paid oodles of cash to advise advertising campaigns. Iron Maiden - Book...

I forgot to include this one in my recent round-up of latest CD purchases.... Whilst there are a plethora of hugely talented guitarists out there who produce great instrumental music there are few that break through from just a niche market dominated by other guitarists who are there to be dazzled by the skill rather than the tunes and fewer still who maintain a long term career from it.   Jeff Beck is one obvious example who has continued to forge a path where each release seems to get more plaudits than the last.  Steve Vai - maybe is in this illustrious group with Al Di Meola in there too maybe.   But without a doubt one for who there is no argument is Joe Satriani - since his sophomore release of Surfing with the Alien in the 80s Joe has continued to produce great albums.  I'll be honest for me he did lose his way - or at least not go in a direction I totally bought into for a while but his last 5 releases since 2006's Super Colossal have placed Joe firmly...

Ok - so after a brief delve into the very murky waters of politics... anyone still here who is interested in music? A quick round up of recent CDs I've bought. Joanne Shaw Taylor - The Dirty Truth Just to set the record straight in case the politician posts are still causing the mud rakers to sling insults at any of my posts - I used to work with her Dad.  Not closely but we were in the same company for a few months together and discussed music, work and football in the Directors suite at Arsenal's ground on some company do once I remember. This is a terrific album.  I've been listening to Joanne for ages on Spotify and had her CDs on my wish list but never got around to buying one.  This was just there screaming at me when I was in an old fashioned record shop in Maidstone.  If you've never listened this is as good a place to start as any - I'd say she is the best blues/rock singer guitarist in the UK at the moment... of either gender.  She has a terrif...

I went mad and bought a bunch of CDs over the weekend. Muse - Drones I've liked Muse since Absolution.   I did delve back into their back catalogue too but the first two didn't quiet tick the boxes with me.  The last effort 2nd Law was ok but I felt a move away from the "Muse" sound they'd defined up until then.  I remember commenting at the time that it sounded a bit like Porcupine Tree - which wasn't a criticism but simply an observation that it didn't sound really like a Muse record to me.   Drones is much more on song for me.  Heavier, the distorted bass riffs are there, Bellamy's soaring guitar sounds heavily over effected too and his voice is right on song.   I heard a review on Jo Whiley's Radio2 show about this in which the guest reviewer went on about how hilarious Muse were with the bombastic instrumentation, hand built guitars etc.  He seemed to think they are a parody of themselves.  I completely disagree but then I ...

I've not bought much new music recently.  But here's a round up of the last two CDs that have entered the Furtheron CD tower - which if I did stack them all up would probably be taller than the house by now. Revolution Saints. Their début eponymously named offering.  Revolution Saints are one of them there supergroups !  The line up is Jack Blades on bass and vocals most known for his work with Night Ranger, who I have to admit are a band I know very little about as they never really hit it off on the Eastern side of the Atlantic.  Deen Castronovo who is the main vocalist and drummer.  Deen is most known for his long stint on the drum stool in Journey.  Lastly and what really originally caught my eye Doug Aldrich ex Dio and ex Whitesnake.  I've considered the previous two Whitesnake albums almost back to their best like the early line up with Moody and Marsden and the Skykes powered version that created the mega-selling eponymously named album now ...

Round up of my Christmas gift CDs Øysrein Greni Forty Days  Øysrein is the main man in Norwegian band Bigbang. This is a 9 song collection of material previously pit of under the band moniker over the years. My son saw him doing a solo support of Rodrigo Y Gabrielle some weeks ago and thought I'd like it. I do!  Think Crosby, Stiles and Nash with Tom Petty and Red Hot Chilli Peppers thrown in at times. So stuff that reminds you constantly of other stuff but in a good way. Spotify has most of the tracks off the original albums. Try it out  Ben Howard I Forget Where We Were Every Kingdom was a terrific début.  On his second full album (ignoring the Burgh Island EP) he seems to have leapt forward.  Simply this is a stunning album, hypnotherapeutic is one word I'd use to try and capture it.  He layers delay and effect laden guitar lines with sparse additional instrumentation and then the vocal delivery reminds me a lot of John Martyn.  Cra...

Anyone who has a long memory will know that I've waxed lyrically about the great Sam Carter on this here blog from time to time in the past. Now ... he has teamed up with Jim Moray to form a new folk rock band called False Lights.   Their first release is Salvor which is just flipping brilliant.  And you can listen to it all now (plugin compatibility allowing etc.) on Soundcloud...  just click and love it!

Uriah Heep - The Outsider.   I've passed by Uriah Heep over the years. I remember really liking Conquest back about 1980 and there last album had some good stuff on it but... The Outsider the first one they've done since long standing bass player Trevor Bolder. I gave it a listen on Spotify - I found myself repeatedly playing it so when my sister gave me an Amazon voucher for my birthday I bought the CD... I'm an old Luddite and still love to have the CD in my grubby mits!  Just brilliant - great searing vocals, stomping drums and bass, super riffing guitar work and above it all a throbbing Hammond Organ! Yes part of the "Heep sound" since Ken Hensley was in the band and still brilliantly there front and centre. You can do what you like with synth patches and what have you but in great rock a Hammond just has such a great warm sound. The Opener Speed of Sound is a punchy jump to your feet rocker and that mode continues throughout. Is Anybody Gonna Help Me...

Some overdue reviews of latest CD additions to my collection. Bellowhead - Revival. Bellowhead on top form.  Frankly their best yet I think.  Sea shanties a plenty kicking off with Let Her Run and straight into Roll Alabama my favourite off the whole album.  There isn't anything new here if you know Bellowhead, excellent arrangements using the huge variety of instruments their large and versatile line up gives them.  The vocals are spot on and much of this album is up tempo foot tapping sing-a-long chorus type stuff that simply they do so well.  Off to see them live in the flesh in November and on this basis can't wait. One highlight is I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight a stonking reworking of the old Richard Thompson song.  I heard an interview with them on BBC Radio 2 where they said they included this song as they wanted something "contemporary" in the track list.  I roared with laughter at this, for most groups who trouble the top 40 wi...

So a couple of new CDs have arrived... this is a good year for music isn't it?  Well is in my book any way... Linkin Park - The Hunting Party. I've liked these boys since the début album but Metorea really shone out for me followed too by Minutes to Midnight - both those are flipping brilliant.  One thing for me is that I love how they have more successfully than a lot of others been able to fuse rapping, scratching, loops etc from hip/hop and rap with great modern rock.  I saw them live at Sonisphere in 2009 and that only confirmed my love of them.  Also I can relate so much to their lyrics... Numb in particular is a lyric I could have written ... if I had the talent!! I have to say whilst good the latest albums haven't engrossed me as much as the early stuff.  So to their latest The Hunting Party.  Now I've seen some (brief) comments on-line from people who've dissed this album but I really don't see that I think it is close to their best and may gr...

I've bought a few albums lately - so here is a quick catch up review on all of them. John Mayer - Paradise Valley Ok this has been out a while but I listened to on Spotify and I have to be honest I wasn't initially smitten with it.  However I did pop back to it a few times and it grew on me, so when I saw that it had dropped to about £6 for the CD on Amazon and with their terrific AutoRip service (see below) I bought it and I have to say, it's been on big rotation on my car CD player.  So what is this?  John at his country rock best frankly.  Well crafted songs with great singing and some stonking strat guitar work.  If you liked 461 Ocean Boulevard era Eric Clapton try this - like I say though give it a few listens.  Who You Love and Paper Doll are my top picks off this. Oysterband - Diamonds on the Water Any of you old enough to remember "Day trip to Bangor"?  Yes that old oddity hit from 1979. If you do then here's a tricky one to swallow......