Tommy Castro and The Pain Killers "The Devil You Know"

 

I'll admit to having an interest in this even though I haven't bought into the hype over this guy.  He's been "The Next Best Thing" for twenty years now without ever quite getting there.  I remember playing his Blind Pig releases of the late 90's in my store, "Right As Rain" being the most prominent, but I always found someone else to grace with the demo copy.  All his albums since then have adorned the Blues Charts, a couple reaching #2 (including this one).  It was the "Pain Killers" element that piqued my curiosity, figuring the band aspect would be an improvement.  Plus, this kept popping up as RIYLs (or whatever it's called now) whilst researching several of the previously posted albums from the last few weeks.  It just so happened that BKP included it in a care package before I could sample it on my own, so here we go..............................................................................................................................I still don't get it.



I don't think he's that great a singer or guitarist.  Vocally compared to Bob Seger and pickin' to SRV?!  Man, I want some of what those guys were smoking...  There are some pieces of songs that work, mostly the female vocalists who grace a couple of tracks, one being the great Marcia Ball.  Guest axe-slingers include Tab Benoit and Joe Bonamassa and J. Geils' Magic Dick blows an inspired harp on a song.  This is the only original I'll keep from the record...



The other track I'll keep is a cover of Wet Willie's "Keep On Smilin'."  There's an eight-minute live version on YouTube that's professionally recorded but honestly, the studio version on the album is better, especially the instrumental break in the middle.  Wicked...

If you're scoring at home, that's two hits out of thirteen for a batting average of 154.  Back to the bench, TC...

Leslie West "Still Climbing"



Take a minute, if you will, and read my post on his previous album a couple of years ago.  Thank you.  Another submission from BKP and once again I'm keeping the whole damn thing.  This album to me is more rock than blues (but it's reached #1 on the Blues charts) and the guest list includes Johnny Winter, Mark Tremonti of Creed/Alter Bridge, and Jonny Lang, who duets on the well-worn cover of "When A Man Loves A Woman."  That track is a fish-out-of-water compared to the other nine rockers (I'm not including the 90-second toss off version of "Over The Rainbow").  He also covers one of his forty-five year-old Mountain songs, "Long Red," which has been sampled by rockers and hip-hoppers for years.  How about this original version from Woodstock, fer chrissakes... 

This is another album that gets better with repeated spins.  West's vocals have a Warren Haynes' growl to them this time out.  Another strong mark to the record is the high-quality lyrics across the disc.  Example...



His wife contributes words to four songs and maybe she should tutor Mato Nanji's spouse at her earliest convenience.

While watching an interview with LW, I was pleased to hear how connected he is to media, not living in a cave like so many artists do, and how it motivates him to write and perform.  He selected one song to record after hearing it on "Nashville," another was inspired by the Hatfields & McCoys miniseries, and he apparently dug Cyndi Lauper's blues record (yeesh...) and learned of Jonny Lang's contribution while listening to Howard Stern interview her about it.

You know what?  I don't think I'll have to wait for BKP to send me the next release...

The Flower Kings "Desolation Rose"

The first time I ever saw this band's name was on a t-shirt at a Porcupine Tree concert years ago.  When I attended Steven Wilson's show last year, I saw several more.  Figured it was time to find out who they were.  A quick history check revealed they were Swedish in origin, circa 1994/5, obtaining domestic distribution in 1999.  For the life of me, after looking at the five albums released over the following four years while I was at Music 4 Less, I don't recall ever having one in my stores.  When I spotted this new record release in late October, I added to my next bulk purchase six weeks later.  A double-disc, I was prepared for prog-rock magic...what I got was passable art-rock.  Substantial is the Yes influence with the vocalist sounding more like Jon Anderson than the replacement the original band now employs.  Other arty rock bands I heard in this were ELP, Marillion and Genesis.  Heavier moments invoked Rush and one track that could have been a Deep Purple/Ian Gillan castoff.  I may have heard a smidgen of a Phish jam, too.

Looking for videos from this record to add, I found very few.  From their label comes this one official lyric clip...



Meh... 
I mentioned double CD earlier but apparently the second disc is bonus material.  Let's break it down:  album proper is ten tracks clocking in at 60 minutes...I'll keep a third of it; bonus material is eight songs @ 32 minutes and I'll keep half.  There are a boatload of 5-star positive reviews out there to read if you're so inclined.  The band obviously has a loyal legion of followers.  Can't say they are enough in number to translate to sales as I found this record on just one world chart for one week.  Will I be moved to investigate the next release?

Doubt it...

Europe "Live at Sweden Rock 30th Anniversary Show"

BKP sent this along a few months ago probably because he knew I loved their last album.  Here is a link to that post ...please read it because I won't rehash it here.  Yes, the blank video screens piss me off, too, but that's the nature of the beast when you embed cool, fan-based selections, ie. unauthorized versions.  Between the artists' legal teams and YouTube's, one will eventually get your account deleted.  Not this time, though, as the entire two-plus hours of this concert is right there for everyone to see on the band's VEVO channel.

Playing in front of a home crowd, the band rocks hard through their catalog, serving up several of my favorites from the pre-breakup days and a few from that last gem of 2012.  Sure, I didn't know the tracks from the reformation years, but they all sounded like Europe, which is a good thing in my book.  One of the covers made me smile as I cranked the volume...



Good lord, where did they dig him up?!  Schenker's had such a checkered history but he can still play.  Do your rockin' self a favor and investigate some UFO albums.  Vocalist Joey Tempest still sounds good and dammit if he isn't one of the youngest-looking 50-year-olds in the business.

I started a "concert" folder on my music hard drive for records just like this one.  Keeping the whole damn thing...

Les Dudek "Delta Breeze"

I have yet to post on an album more than six months old, and certainly not one at thirteen months, but I have no choice here.  The year was 1977 and this album on the right landed at WPRK.  How could I NOT spin it?

Little did I know that I already had some of his work in my album collection.  Les had guested on the ABB's "Bros & Sistas", Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" and Steve Miller's "Flying Eagle."  It quickly became one of my favorites.  Here's a track as proof...  If you looked at the info, you'll see a couple of names who later became part of Toto.  The follow-up album, "Ghost Town Parade," can be easily dubbed as a favorite record from my time at Rollins College, spun ad nauseum on WPRK and The Mad Rocker Show.  There was the Dudek, Finnegan, Krueger Band and also a group in 1980 called Black Rose which was really a rock showcase for Les' squeeze at the time, Cher.  Don't believe me?



The band co-hosted a Midnight Special in September that was pretty good.  Cher fans seemed to like the album, Dudek's didn't (eh, it was OK...I have it) and critics panned it.  Les did another solo the following year and then basically dropped out of sight for more than a decade.  By the time he surfaced with a new album, the year was 1994 and it was on a tiny label from the east coast of Florida.  "Deeper Shade of Blues" was an outstanding comeback record and I was so blown away I called the label and started asking questions.  Next thing you know, I've got Les doing a meet 'n' greet at our company convention in St. Pete and many managers put the CD in their store's inventory.  It brought him a new set of younger fans and revitalized old ones like moi. 



And just like that......gone again.  He'd surface to do a few small-venue shows and I got to have a couple beers with him on breaks during one at Cricketeers @ The Mercado.  He thanked me for helping him sell some records and I felt on top of the world! 

When BKP sent "Delta Breeze" to me in mid-February, I was stunned to learn of a new album.  As I've researched clips for this post, I've also learned of another CD from 2005 (well, shit, I'll probably have to get the mp3 file).  A quick sampling of a few tracks was enough to merit immediate commitment to disc and a search for a website and Facebook page.  Damn if he wasn't playing the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth in early March so tickets were purchased even before spinning the disc.  As timing would have it, I didn't get to pop it into the player until I was on my way down the turnpike.  Had a smile on my face within the first thirty seconds.  Opener is an instrumental just like the ones he wrote early on in his career.  The title cut followed and the smile widened.  The next two songs were initially a let down since they had that "single" blueprint but subsequent spins dug the hooks in deeper.  Track 4 could have been a Huey Lewis or Steve Miller song if I ever heard one.  His signature slide and spot-on vocals are still strong after forty years.  Track 5 is another smoker and six & seven are back to the formula.  Number eight could have been mistaken for Little Feat, a little ditty about the government's ability to rip us all off in more ways than one.  Once I hit #9.....uh oh..... A mere four minutes later and I'm standing on the accelerator pushing 90 mph and the stereo volume reads twice what it normally does......"Trouble With The Law" might just be the best rock song I've heard by ANYBODY in years!  There's one more sharply barbed song before the album's finale in which Les feels his mortality, "chasing the minutes of the day" and "watching loved ones pass away."  

Hey Les, if you can make a record this fantastic forty-something years deep into a career, it ain't over, buddy.  I beg you....please keep 'em coming.