Too much work, too many albums, not enough time...(Part 2)

Vocalist Dan McCafferty has retired from touring due to his declining health and Pete Agnew's band has already named a replacement, but don't write off that distinct voice yet.  This album is far superior to the last one and has sold better as a result, charting in Sweden, Germany, Norway and Austria, as well as having a three-week run in Switzerland. 



About half of this is very good, eliciting head bobbin' and foot stompin' in the car, a few tracks are better than average and a couple aren't.  For a man who just turned 68, McCafferty's still got it.  So what if he doesn't travel?  Plop him down in a chair in the studio with a bottle of Jack on the counter and turn on the microphone.  Let the other guy sing on tour.

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This time Hiatt has stumbled, IMO.  Instead of dipping his toes in the blues as he normally does, this time he's waist-deep in them........and it doesn't work.  Color me disappointed.  I had to wait over half the album before a track finally played that had the sound I anticipated.  This isn't the song I'm referring, but it is one of the three keepers...



There is one classic tune to be found on "Terms..." and it's entitled "Old People"

Old people are pushy, cause you don't know how they feel
And when you pretend you do
Well they know it's not real
Pretty soon it's gonna be all over
Good enough reason not to let you pass
They done seem like sweet, little old people
But they are not about to kiss your ass

I'm getting to this point in my life..........

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Now this is more like it.  This will be the first Phish title added to my collection since Farmhouse in 2000.  Of course, there have only been two others since then.........details... 
This record is more mature with only a smattering of reckless abandon, yet it works.  Some tracks have short passages which hint at twenty-year-old tunes, but hint only.  The title track opener excels...



...and the single non-Anastasio penned number (solo credited to Page McConnell) is a winner, too.  My guess is the impetus came from behind the board.  Bob Ezrin, producer extraordinaire, manned this project and I have to believe there was much trust from the band as to his suggestions. 

Well done, gentlemen...... 

Too much work, too many albums, not enough time...

...to do justice to everything so I'm going to zip through some new releases that have precedent within this blog.  I will link the earlier posts and offer a short synopsis which hopefully will provide a bit of insight.  We're off...

 

Quite simply one of this year's best.  I sort of peed all over myself about the previous record two years ago though I have better bladder control this time out.  This is solid wire-to-wire.  Why it isn't a rock radio staple is only due to programmer stupidity.  It has sold far better in Europe (which is why I got to spin it again when I found it in the CD section of the in-flight entertainment on a recent overseas jaunt) than domestically and they are headed across the pond soon for about 30 dates before Christmas.  This is where my pattern of waiting a while before listening to these new albums craps on my chances of seeing a show as they've usually passed through my area before I know it. 

 

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I thoroughly enjoyed their previous record as did many others.  This one comes highly produced and shimmering (courtesy of big-bucks major label Columbia), again recalling the heyday of Indigo Girls but this time just a dab of country instrumentation.  It cracked the Top 25 domestically and charted in another dozen countries, topping the charts in their home country of Sweden and also Norway.  My ear detected three obvious singles and I got one right...



A bright, bright future lies ahead for these young ladies.  I see they are in Orlando in early November......may have to attend.

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From the ashes of Black Country Communion comes California Breed, which consists of Glenn Hughes and Jason Bonham along with some kid trying to fill the enormous shoes of Joe Bonamassa.  The clash of the two giant egos put an end to the four years of BCC and CA Breed is Hughes' answer......................meh.  Same style as BCC just not as creative.  The album hit about a half dozen charts the week it was released and quickly disappeared.  There's not much here that would stimulate a return, either.  Not a complete loss as I will probably retain about a third of it.  This is one I will keep...




Get the Rival Sons instead....

Liam Finn "The Nihilist"

 

Was very anxious to hear this new release.  I figured it would build upon the promise of his last record and also by his participation in his dad's most recent slab o' genius.  Alas, it's probably my least favorite of his small discography but it's a keeper, nonetheless.

I noted similarities to his earlier work but this is more John & Yoko than just John due to friend/collaborator Eliza Jane Barnes (yep, Jimmy's daughter... quite the lineage between these two, eh?), who is more prominent in the vocal mix this time. 



Yeah, he's a rebel.  Official video for a track called "Snug As Fuck."  "Airplay be damned, I say!"

My notes repeated the term "complicated" though there were a couple of songs, one named for Mrs. Tim Burton, which could be called pop.  I didn't say "hits," did I?  Even these tracks have way too much going on for terrestrial radio.  Here is the other of the two...



My absolute favorite tune closes the record.  "Wrestling With Dad" does exactly that, wringing Split Enz-ish influences into a shallow pool of Cure tendencies. 

One of my favorite review sites opined that more than a few of Finn's fans would be "a bit puzzled" (that's me) but also labeled him "bold" and "visionary."  I was moved to the point of checking his tour, discovering that he just wrapped up a handful of dates domestically as a support act to Warpaint (who?????). 

Oh, well, maybe next time...

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band "Goin' Home"

The ending line from my post on his live album a few years ago says, "...let's hope for new studio material in 2011."  Somehow, someway, for whatever reason, I never acquired it when it dropped a year later.  BKP didn't let that happen this time.  Packaged with the Neil Schon solo, they were a nice pair (there's a forty-plus year-old album title).  KWS is a seasoned veteran at 37, able to coerce some fine names to join him whether on stage or in studio.  This album guests Warren Haynes, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Kim Wilson, among others.  He covers songs by the Kings (Albert, B.B., Freddie) and SRV, to name a few.  Bandmates include Chris Layton (Double Trouble) and Tony Franklin (The Firm).  There are no flaws in the fabric.  Featured 500, here it comes...



A Willie Dixon tune made famous by Mr. Diddley.  Noah Hunt is one helluva singer.  This is another of the smokin' tracks from the record...



I had to look for his tour schedule to see if he was getting close any time soon, but alas, he's on the West Coast with the Experience Hendrix ensemble before taking his solo gig overseas.  If you want to hear him rip some Jimi, it's all over the internet.

I also discovered that the version I received contained three bonus tracks and it's worth the search, if you are interested.  One is a Howlin' Wolf cover and another is the early 60's NOLA classic, "Trick Bag," a song that I will always count the late Johnny Winter's interpretation as one of my favorites.

The Rides wasn't what I meant when I asked for studio material, though it was thoroughly enjoyable.  "Goin' Home" is what I envisioned...  

Neal Schon featuring Mendoza & Castronovo "So U"

I was very happy to see this in a recent BKP care package.  With the viability of the new Journey lineup and album and the rock veterans employed and credited on "So U," the bar was set fairly high.  And it did not disappoint.

I went back to the log book and found that I own two of his non-Journey records from the 80's, one which co-headlined Jan Hammer.  I can honestly admit that I had no idea he had released a half dozen others between then and now.  His cohorts here are pedigreed to the max.  Marco Mendoza, bassist extraordinaire, first started with Blue Murder and John Sykes in the early 90's and eventually the Thin Lizzy reformation, including the Black Star Riders from last year.  He also spent a couple of years with Ted Nugent around the turn of the century.  Deen Castonovo has been drumming in Journey for the past 15+ years and was in Bad English with Schon and Jonathan Cain for their two records in '89 and '91.  As I scanned the credits, the name Jack Blades appears as cowriter on six of the album's nine tracks.  What I didn't find was current Journey vocalist, Arnel Pineda, and I was certain he was on two of the songs, one which would fit squarely on any post-1978 Journey record.  Turns out it's Castronovo singing.  Well, I'll be damned...



Not the most inspired video setting, huh?  Actually, after watching all three "official" videos, they were all shot in front of the same green screen, and I'm guessing on the same day, only the songs, background and attire changed.  C'mon, Neil, it's not as if you can't afford it...  Maybe he knew deep down that the ROI wasn't going to justify dropping the coin because 75% of this album is more along the lines of pre-Steve Perry Journey, which was when I first discovered the band.  It was that fateful Thanksgiving holiday break in 1976 when I was finally offered a chance to do a show on WPRK...actually, it was ALL the shows from Wednesday through Saturday night, five on-air hours per, all on 25 minutes notice and 10 minutes of training.  I dropped the needle on the longest track of whatever album I played in an effort to minimize the number of cuing errors and segments featuring dead air.  This provided plenty of opportunities in those four fateful days to seriously study EVERY PIECE OF VINYL in the studio.  There were two Journey albums, the début and "Look Into The Future," both of which blew my scrambled 18-year-old brain.  Might I share a pivotal point in one of those evenings...



While there isn't anything of this caliber on "So U," the same stylings of the three pre-Steve Perry Journey records are apparent, Latin fusion/jazz/rock with some smokin' guitar.  Neil was too much rock for Carlos, but it worked for me.  As does this album.  There is nary a turd in the lot and I made three different notations which all read "This is a very good record."  That in itself is what dooms this to the Heatseekers charts and not the upper echelons of the Top 200.  It's "too rock" for the legions of "Journey fans" but not for this one...