Don Airey "All Out"

 

His may not be a name many of you recognize, but if you reside in the over-forty demographic, I'm willing to bet that the Mad Rockers among you have sent a paycheck his way once or twice.  I own approximately 25 recordings on which Mr. Airey played the keys, for example.  My first introduction to him was right around the time that the header picture for this blog was taken, and chances are I was sitting in that same chair when I first read his name.  It was either the "War Dance" album (really, an album) by Colosseum II or the "Andrew Lloyd Webber:  Variations" record in 1977.  A short list of major names he played with thereafter includes Gary Moore, Rainbow, Ozzy & Whitesnake.  Go ahead, take a look at the credits from some of those 80's recordings,

I'll wait......................................  See?  I told you you've paid for some trinkets around his abode.  But in his 40-year career as a professional musician, "All Out" is only his third solo release, and this one only came about due to the extended break for his current employer, Deep Purple.  

So now you have a point of reference according to several of the reviews I read whilst investigating this release.  I wasn't familiar with any of the assembled band members, but I'm certainly not as informed on the European rock music scene as my previous decades.  I saw plenty of Ian Gillan comparisons for the vocalist, but methinks that's false advertising or the simplistic ramblings of youthful reviewers, because there can only be one of the great Mr. Gillan.  I'm going to run with the stylings of Rainbow singers Joe Lynn Turner or Graham Bonnet, or for the opening track, the gone-too-soon David Byron of Uriah Heep.  Here's a link for you to judge for yourself.  There were other comparisons to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and when track #2 played, it wasn't just eerily similar, it was copyright infringement worthy, straight off Brain Salad Surgery.  Turns out that the piece was written by the same Argentinian composer of "Toccata" from ELP's BSS.  There's another track from "All Out" that features the ELP vibe, but another listen or two found it leaning more toward Triumvirat than ELP.  There are Purple-ish tracks, of course, with one featuring the hardest working man in show business, Joe Bonamassa, but honestly, I had to cheat to find out which one.  Nothing noteworthy, for sure.  Same goes for the two Bernie Marsden (Coverdale's Whitesnake) six-string contributions.  On the last spin, I thought I might have heard an old Styx instrumental playing on a boom-box in the backyard. 

You've read where I said a record had a "60's influence" or a "70's feel", "All Out" sounds as if it was actually recorded in the 70's.  Depending upon your taste, that could be a good thing or an awful thing.