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| ROGER CLYNE AND THE PEACEMAKERS....SONORAN HOPE AND MADNESS**** EMMAJAVA RECORDINGS WWW.AZPEACEMAKERS.COM The Peacemaker�s first release �Honky Tonk Union� (1999) debuted at #1 on the Billboard Internet Chart and their second release �Real To Reel� (2001) debuted at #9 and now their new release �Sonoran Hope And Madness� has debuted at #3 on self-same chart making The Peacemakers the only independent band to break the Billboard Internet Top 10 three times. Roger Clyne also wrote and recorded the ass-kicking theme song for Fox T.V.�s �King Of The Hill� animated series. Clyne�s first band incarnation �The Refreshments� also scored a radio/MTV hit with �Banditos� in 1996. Roger Clyne is a dedicated desert advocate and he works at preserving his native Arizonan Deserts by donating his time and money to the cause. His music can almost be defined as �Desert Rock� since the music and lyrical imagery are pervaded with a sense of Native America and like-wise thematic concepts. The Peacemakers�s new album includes Roger Clyne on vocals and rhythm guitar, P.H. Naffah on drums, Steve Larson on lead guitar, Danny White on bass, and also features extra guitar help from Scott Johnson of The Gin Blossoms. The new album opens and closes with a bursting crackle of fireworks which celebrates the music therein. The opening song �Sonoran Hope And Madness� describes the power of nature and how it constantly will return to form no matter the consequences of the ignorance caused by man. lyrics like �And may everything you poison come back stronger� demonstrate this idea. The second song on the album �Color Blind Blues� kicks things up a notch with it�s hard-rocking, guitar driven message that the blues knows no certain race. �Red boy, white boy, black boy, ain�t we all got the same blues?� it asks. �Ashes Of San Miguel� is a song based on fact. It tells of carrying the ashes of a dearly departed close friend in an urn on the shot-gun seat in his car and Searching for the self-same ghost of this friend in Mexico. This song is powerful as only a song from true-life experience can be, and accurately describes the heartache of loss and unexpressed grief. The almost punk-like intensity of �Mile High And Risin�� bitches up a guitar frenzied storm of pissed-off anger and flips off the establishment with lyrics like: � Set loose your wings, cut the strings of your puppeteers / Freedom begins, baby between your ears / Reach for the sky, you do not have to buy what they�ve been advertisin� / Not when you�re mile high and risin�� �Bury My Heart At The Trailer Park� is a real rib-tickler with lyrics like: �Well, I was born in a feed-lot / Raised in a strip-mall / Cut my teeth on a mason jar / I was kickin� beer-cans before I could crawl� and the like. It jams. An interlude divides the album into two distinct parts, which to my ears really brought to mind the great loss and advantage of the old vinyl albums of years past where you had to physically get up out of your chair and go over to the turn-table and flip the album over to hear side two. The interlude song is a really cool version of the traditional mastrwork �Home On The Range�. The song �Buffulo� captures the heartfelt longing for nature and the old, almost completely lost ways of doing things, before it was all corrupted by man and machine. Picture a modern day Indian with a tear in his eye, sitting astride his horse staring off into the distance at a stacked freeway and the pollution surrounding him. �Smaller And Better Things� describe the want of the simpler things in life. Lyrics like: � Don�tcha want to tip the apple-cart over, baby? / Don�tcha want to shoot an arrow at the sky? / The fruit is throbbing on the vine / So many castles to storm and so little time� This whole album flat-out rocks, but it also incorporates alt-country, blues, and bluegrass influences as well as a certain amount of Springsteenish lyrical touches. Roger Clyne is one talented son of a bitch and I feel that �Sonoran Hope And Madness� is his strongest effort yet. Let�s just hope that he hasn�t reached his zenith just yet. |
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| Another album from Canada�s cool Northern blues records and Boulder, Colorado�s outstanding blues talent Otis Taylor, and it�s just as damn fine as his last. �White African� was nominated for four W.C. Handy Awards in 2002 in the categories �Best Blues Album of the Year� amongst others, and Taylor will have four songs featured in the upcoming film �The Badge� starring Billy Bob Thornton. The new release once again features Taylor�s amazing gift for hard-core, darkly mesmerizing songwriting, and his soul-crafted musicianship that incorporates instruments not commonly heard in blues music; like the banjo. Taylor�s talents lie in his ability to transform tales of woe and desperation into haunting, fierce story-songs that are cloaked in ghostly atmospherics and hair-raising delivery. This guy is the witch doctor of the blues. When his music puts it�s spell on you, it wriggles in through your ears like an ear-wig and makes a bed in your head, where his version of the blues can work their heavy magic. The new album features 12 Taylor originals where he sings, and plays acoustic guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, banjo and electric banjo. The rest of the band consists of Kenny Pasarelli on bass, piano and organ and Eddie Turner on lead guitar. The album also features the outstanding, haunting backing vocals of Otis� daughter Cassie Taylor. The album features the opening cut �Ten Million Slaves� that starts off with a jangling banjo and speaks of the slaves, the middles passage and the hardships of their journey over two hundred years ago. �Hands On Your Stomach� continues this line of thought, and features Taylor�s evocative vocal technique. The song is about how dreams can sometimes be the only means of escape and freedom to those who have been enslaved. �Changing Rules� features Taylor on acoustic slide guitar and is about a small town sheriff who loses his job, and thus everything he had to live for, because of the encroachment of the modern world. �32nd Time� speaks of the freedom-riders who lost their lives during the sixties. �Shaker Woman� is a gritty addition with it�s opening, half-whispered vocals and repeating guitar line that just works it�s way under your skin. It�s a tale about a love that isn�t what you want, but you love anyway. One of the best songs on �Respect The Dead� for me is �Black Witch�, where a white man goes into the black side of town and grabs him a mistress, who turns out to be an evil woman, a �black witch�. I won�t give this one away, you�ll just have to listen. This song alone would make one hell of a movie. Other songs on the album feature subjects such as love triangles, deep depression, misbegotten love, tragedy, torment, abuse and accidental death. Now if that ain�t the blues, what is? This is an album about demons. The demons who reside in everyday folk�s heads that lead them to making the wrong choices, the consequences there-of usually being violent and nasty. Respect the dead indeed. |
| OTIS TAYLOR...RESPECT THE DEAD NORTHERN BLUES RECORDS***** WWW.NORTHERNBLUES.COM |
| The Benders are a great band that plays old-time string band and bluegrass style music. Their second album has a real hill-country, Appalachian feel, and their rock backgrounds also liven up their sound with a fun, front-porch jam feel that gives the new album a driving hillbilly life-force all it�s own. The band consists of Bow Thayer on banjo, who also contributes most of the vocals and song-writing. Jabe Beyor plays guitar, and has released a really cool album of his own �Out-Back Country Vampire� recently. Nolan McKelvey plays bass, Sean Staples plays Mandolin and Tim Kelly, who speaks 6 languages, plays dobro. All of these guys are great songwriters and musicians on their own as will as collectively and this group really gels in an outstanding way as The Benders. The Benders II album comes across as a fun, get-together type of project and the laid back, yet top-notch talent involved help to create a sometimes lazy, sometimes lively collection of memorable songs that really stand-out from a lot of the chaff being released these days under the alternative country banner. A lot of the album brings to mind some of the more country type stuff released by Dylan or The Byrds. �Flat-Picker Blues� with its persnickety, seasoned playing will have you kicking shit with the best of �em in no time at all. Other nice cuts include �River Will Rise�, �Can�t Wait� and �Willy�s Song�. These are songs that have all the trimmings of the blue-grass and country string-band genres down pat. Whiskey drinkin�, bad women, being flat broke, mis-laid plans and goin� to jail. It�s rare to get hold of an album put together by a bunch of seasoned singers and players these days that holds true to the idiom it represents such as the new Benders release does. If this style of music is up your alley, definitely check it out. Oh, and check out the end of track 12, where you can hear the band cutting up, and one of the guys imitating �Carl� from Slingblade. It�s a hoot! |
| THE BENDERS...THE BENDERS II**** PIG PILE MUSIC WWW.PIGPILEMUSIC.COM |
| Ralph Boyd Johnson from up in Calgary, Canada is 43 years old and has written over 350 songs. We finally have his debut album, �Dyin� To Go� and I have to ask myself, �What took so friggin� long?� Ralph has opened or played on stage with the likes of Joe Ely, Dave Alvin, Billy Cowsill, Victoria Williams, Kevin Welch and Blue Rodeo. A lot of pressmen have compared his music to that of Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, John Prine, Tom Waits, etc. Screw all that. He definitely has his own thing going on, and if I were to identify him with anyone, it would have to be perhaps Fred Eaglesmith. �Hey Boyd,� I asked him, �Did you listen to any traditional country music when you were, like in highschool?� �Fuck no,� he replied, �I hated that shit, I was into The Stones, Black Sabbath�s first album...� Later in life as Ralph grew older and became turned on to the Texas songwriters and such, his music took on a new edge and influence. I asked him if he knew about the new Flatlander�s album coming out, and he said that he was staring at the cover of Joe Ely�s Greatest Hits album as we spoke. (The Flatlanders consist ofTexas musicians Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hankcock). Ralph is a true songwriter in the best sense of the word. He told me it usually takes him up to three weeks sometimes to finish just one song. An exception is the song �Ode To Steve� on Dyin� To Go, about his cousin�s husband who had a big influence on his life and helped raise him, who died of cancer. Ralph says he wrote the song in about three hours. �Was Steve Standing over your shoulder when you wrote that one?� I asked. Ralph replied, �I swear to god, he really was.� I guess Ralph Boyd Johnson is a singer-songwriter and balladeer who does folk, roots-rock, country and even poetic spoken word, sometimes separate, sometimes in combination, depending on the song and how the mood fits. A couple of songs on the album just kick ever-lovin ass and rock out. The songs �Dyin� To Go� and �Hit The Deck� just demand to be cranked way up. I was playing �Dyin� To Go� in my truck and had stopped to grab a paper in front of a grocery store, and several people sitting outside at a restaurant nearby were so impressed that they asked me about the artist. Recorded over a period of 14 months, the new album contains other gems like the heartbreaking �Bombed Out House� and �She Used To Worry�; an Elvis-like rave-up that really brings to mind the 50�s with its ear- and rib-tickling background vocals. �Hard Act To Follow� is another about a desperate character who leads a desperate, hard-partying life. One of my faves is �What Do Ya Right� about an outlaw who is out hitchin� trains, has a lot of bad habits and is involved in some serious criminal activity. In the song he asks �What do ya write on the back of postcards from the edge�. �Ol� Black Crow� is a pugilistic spoken word piece about a black bare-knuckle fighter who pounds it out to the death. This is one hell of a piece of poetry and goes to demonstrate the depths of Johnson�s obvious talent. God, it pisses me off when someone with this much talent, who has been working so long to share his gifts with the rest of the World, gets passed over and lost in the cracks. I really hope that this doesn�t happen because this guy needs to be noticed quick, and in a big way. |
| RALPH BOYD JOHNSON...DYIN� TO GO***** RUMBLE SEAT RECORDINGS WWW.RALPHBOYDJOHNSON. COM |
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| Lead singer and songwriter Dave Marr of the Star Room Boys possesses one of the more elegiac voices in this sometimes slow-motion, boot-gazing style of alternative country. His songs have a hard-edged drawl that is able to cascade into a shadowy, enveloping, dark barroom croon. This is music for shadowy corner tables at the local Dew Drop Inn where the ceiling is obscured by cigarette clouds and the smell of whiskey and beer is engrained in the scarred, surrounding wood-work. The band that backs Marr�s songs up do so in grand style. They chime right in on time with Phillip McArdle�s honky-tonk guitar work and Johnny Neff�s heart-wrenching, weeping lap steel and down-home dobro. The sturdy rhythm section consisting of Bob Fernandez on drums and John McMahon on bass perfectly accentuate this blue-hearted and lonesome honky-tonk music. The song titles themselves exemplify the lyrics that they contain: �If I Can Ever Get It Back Again�, �Cocaine Partys�, �I Can�t Stand To Be Alone� and �When I�m All The Way Down�. �The Daydreamer� picks up a pace a bit with a trucker song, but it�s one of the only ones to do so. �I�ll Play Angel� is a great song that nods to Willie, and �Bars And Stone� is a right on the mark prison song with a definite George Jones influence and contains lyrics like: �And I feel something dying inside me / All scared and alone / But there�s nothing that keeps me away / Just bars and stone Don�t listen to �Time� while sitting in a Motel 6 three hundred miles from home after having left your wife and family, especially if there�s a loaded firearm and a bottle of whisky handy. My guess is that Dave Marr is probably actually a happy-go-lucky, good-natured sort of fellow, but if this is indeed true, you�d never know it from the down-hearted, depressing, crying in your beer songs that he writes and sings as the head man of the Star Room Boys. God, I love it. |
| STAR ROOM BOYS...THIS WORLD JUST WON�T LEAVE YOU ALONE**** SLEWFOOT RECORDS WWW.SLEWFOOTRECORDS.COM |
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| Willie King�s first album was the self-produced �I Am The Blues�. Next came �Freedom Creek Live�, which was recorded at a Juke Joint called Betty�s Place in Sandyland, MS. �Freedom Creek Live� came out on The Rooster Blues label after founder Jim O�Neal chanced upon Willie at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama. The two kept in touch over the next 13 years and now we have Willie�s second album for Rooster, �Living In A New World�. Willie King was born in Prairie Point, MS in 1943. After his father took-off, Willie and his brothers and sisters were raised by his grandparents, who were local sharecroppers. Music surrounded Willie growing up, with his grandfather being a gospel singer, and his absent father having been an amateur blues musician. As a child, the young Willie made a �diddley-bo� by nailing baling wire to a tree in his yard. Later at the age of about 9, he possessed a one-string guitar that he could play indoors at night as well. In 1967 Willie moved to Chicago in an attempt to better his pocket-book, but after a year on the West and South Sides, he returned to Memphis, Alabama, one the poorest regions of the poorest state in America. While there,Willie worked at various occupations including salesman, bootlegger, and blues musician. By the late 70�s, after previously having joined the civil rights movement, and having associated with the left-wing Higlander Center, King began writing what he called his �struggling songs�. These were political blues songs that he would use to educate his listeners. Sometimes he would so upset his �narrow-minded� audiences that he would have to resort to �popular blues covers� during a performance. Willie and some of his friends founded the RMA (Rural Members Association) in 1981 to provide a way for area residents to develop self-help and cooperative projects geared toward alleviating the burdens of poverty and unemployment. The association created opportunities for young people in rural areas -especially those at risk- to learn about their roots from the elders of the community, and to gain skills and talents to help them in their respective lives. The RMA volunteers would also help the infirm, the elderly, and low-income families. Although Willie�s first two releases were much more politically inclined, the new album �Living In A New World� splits the music evenly between the more overtly political cuts and the straight ahead juke-joint blues numbers. This is a plus in my book, because you shouldn�t have to listen to an entire album of in your face protest songs all in one bite. The new album makes for a more varied and interesting listening experience. Although his protest songs call for action against corruption and inequalities in the system, we all need just a plain-old, evil-woman song at times. Willie says in his liner notes that after playing the blues for over 25 years he was let in on the secret that the bluesman was really talking about how the boss-man was doing him wrong even though the words were about evil-doing women. So, is there really any difference? This is an album that is funky, soulful, and a bit jazzy at times; yet it still carries the definite overall vibe of the gut-bucket juke-joint blues. This is a sound that has been defined by the likes of Fat Possum Record Label artists such as R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and T Model Ford. There�s a lot of Howlin� Wolf and John Lee Hooker influence through-out, but the album is also peppered with a slinky Stax-Volt current that runs through many cuts, especially the ones featuring alto-sax and keyboards. Although many of the cuts feature repeated lyrics, they never grow tiresome, but insinuate the ultimate groove going on to remarkable effect. Willie King�s current band �The Liberators� consists of long-time partner Willie Lee Halbert on second vocal, whose talents are right on time when he echoes and underlines King�s phrasings and stylistic turns. This is a vocally dualistic attraction that is all too infrequently heard in this sort of music. Guitarist Aaron �Hard Head� Hodge�s playing perfectly offsets Kings fret-work, adding great personality to the songs on the album. He and Drummer Willie James Williams are fellow veterans of Betty Jean�s Juke House and other favorite venues. The band also includes keyboard man Henry Smith and bassist Robert Corbett who help to hold down the fort. Alto Sax-man Kevin Hayes, a truck-driver from Louisville, MS joins the band when he can, and is also included on the album. The album includes many great songs. �Crawlin� Blues�. features a definite John Lee Hooker influence, and includes such lyrics as: �Sometimes I had to plow the mule in the rain / And my boss-man wouldn�t even feel my pain� �The Stomper� is a hell of a juke-dance song that will have ya on the floor in no time. �You So Evil� is a straight-ahead mean woman song with a definite nod to Howlin� Wolf that carries no political overtones whatsoever, unless the �mean evil woman� is actually �the boss-man�. Here�s a sampling of some of the lyrics in �You So Evil� that I could decipher: �She call me a fool and take my money / She won�t treat me right / She made me cry and she made me moan and groan / She made me eat out of the watermelon patch� Then we get one of the overtly political songs: �America�, but it�s so outrageously patriotic that you just have to love it, especially coming after the World Trade Center attack. �I�ve got your front / I�ve got your back, America.� �You�ve got to love and stay standing tall / Let�s come together, look out for each other, America.� My favorite song on the album has to be �Terrorized�, another John Lee Hooker influenced cut that details the growing up of the poor and uneducated. �They wouldn�t let me got to school / You know I didn�t know how to read and write� King sings with plaintive emotion, �You know they gave me the news / And they called me a fool� �You know they laughed at me and I didn�t even make a sound / You know they drug me around and hung me, hung me from the tallest oak tree� �Talk about terror, I�ve been terrorized all my days / You know I wish it would change, got to change them evil ways� There�s a monologue that ends the album that is both fit and touching, where Willie gives credit and thanks to all those who have helped him get his music out to the people. Willie also goes on to explain his outlook on folks and the importance of love in this world. Willie says, and I quote: �The blues have always been a part of me, I live it everyday. I love the blues.� and by god, you�ll know it�s true after hearing Willie King And The Liberators �Living In A New World�. |
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| WILLIE KING AND THE LIBERATORS LIVING IN A NEW WORLD***** ROOSTER BLUES WWW.ROOSTERBLUES.COM |
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| Case 150 (named after an old tractor) calls their music �American music on it�s way to somewhere else�. Call it roots-rock, alternative country, whatever, but this is one great Americana album from a new band that bears watching. Based in Pennsylvania, the band has been through several member changes since 1997 with the present line-up holding steady since November 2001, the exception being a recently added pedal-steel player. The current line-up now consists of lead-man and multi-instrumentalist Thom Bissey(Vocals/Guitar/Mandolin/Banjo/Bass), Ed Yashinsky (Vocals/Bass/Guitar), Ken Geist(Guitars/Vocals), Tuck(Drums), and Mark Tomoe(Pedal-Steel). Current band members all came from previous bands in the area with names such as: The Bandicoots, Plasticville, Uncle Sam and Bubba. �Ephemera� is a Greek word meaning �temporary, that which will be replaced�. Though the debut album from Case 150 is an outstanding 6 song E.P. that definitely holds it�s own, let�s hope that it is only temporary, and will indeed be replaced with a full-length release in the near future �cause these guys are a roots-rock delight. Stepping out of the bars and into the studios for the first time, Case 150 has created a stripped-down, �from scratch� effort that demonstrates their fine abilities at song structure and melody. �Ephemera� was recorded at Saturation Acres in Danville, PA and at The Sixth Street Studios in Harrisburg, PA. After the album�s initial release, it has garnered recognition from such far away places as Japan and Europe. When asked about his musical influences from the past, Bissey stated: �There was the whole Jazz thing, but I guess I was also starting to pick up on the likes of cats like Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters...the real blues guys..as well as guys like Leo Kottke, John Fahey. The forefathers were always there. Country was the only music playing in my parents house...and a little bluegrass. Every Saturday night it was The Grand Ole Opry on the station-wagon�s A.M. radio. So the twang was in the blood. I just stopped fighting it in the 80�s and decided to let the twang out.� Let the twang out indeed. The highlight of Case 150 has to be Bissey�s singular, scintillating and rootsy tenor. His vocals are some of the best I�ve heard in a while coming out of a new band, and the lyrical imagery of his songmanship is almost poetic in it�s delivery. The musicianship and harmony vocals from the entire band as a whole are also outstanding, hooks and riffs abound. The music on Ephemera brings to mind varying styles including 70�s Country Rock, early R.E.M., old Nashville, and Texas Honky-Tonk. The songs are about women-trouble, bad relationships, hard times and the like; but come across fresh with Bissey�s whittled-down rustic imagery and small-town vision. Stand-out cuts on Ephemera include the opening cut, �She Got Home�. With it�s rollicking guitars and great harmonies in the chorus, this one really shows off the band�s cohesiveness. The second cut �Katie� is probably my favorite cut on the album and at almost 6 minutes, it�s also the longest. With it�s nice musical change-overs and interesting lyrical aspects, this is a cut that bears repeated listening in order to absorb it�s full effect. Another winner has to be �Cascade Of Blonde� I really liked the charging beat of Tuck�s drumming and the over-all guitar work featured. This song also includes what I thought were some of the most interesting lyrics on the album, an example being: �If she saw him again, she�d cut his throat / A bit extreme I thought, but she�s talking through coke / Headed out for Memphis, I went on to Montrose / Don�t think we�ll pass this way again.� �Wrecked-Up� is the most outright country song on the album and was also the only one not written by Bissey (It was written by Ed Yashinsky). It starts off with nice acoustic guitar work and then kicks over into real road-house fervor. �I am sorry for the things that I might have said / I am sorry if I ever wished you dead / But sometimes I�m wrecked-up in my head / I cannot understand the reasoning for the things I said.� Case 150 is a band that obviously cares about the quality of it�s sound and Ephemera is a case in point. I eagerly await their first full-length album in order to see how things go. Bissey says he has a whole slew of material to work with and choose from, and if their debut effort is any indication, the next one should be another great example of �American music on it�s way to somewhere else�. Case 150�s Ephemera is available at CDBaby.com and is also a featured CD at Miles Of Music. Check it out. |
| CASE 150...EPHEMERA**** SELF RELEASED WWW.CASE150.COM |
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| *****TOP NOTCH-GET IT! **** PRETTY DAMN GOOD *** FOR FAN'S ONLY ** DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY * MIDGET FRISBEE TEAM MATERIAL |
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| CHARLIE WALLER AND THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN 45 YEARS OF MEMORIES **** PINECASTLE RECORDS WWW.PINECASTLE.COM |
| Charlie Waller And The Country Gentlemen are celebrating their 45th anniversary as one of the best bluegrass bands of all time. They did things in the genre that other bluegrass bands wouldn't touch, and were simply always ahead of their time. Such great musicians as Eddie Adcock, John Duffey, Jerry Douglas, Doyle Lawson, Bill Emerson and Ricky Skaggs have passed through the band, and gone on to become award winning names in their own right. But, frontman Charlie Waller's great guitar playing and one of a kind vocals always defined the band for what they were. Waller was greatly influenced by Hank "The Singing Cowboy" Snow, Johnny And Jack, and others of the kind. Ricky Skaggs called Waller, "One of the best singers I've ever heard". The original Country Gentlemen got their start as a pick-up band to play at the last minute at a Washington, D.C. area bar. Their first classic line-up consisted of Waller, John Duffey, Eddie Adcock, and Ed Ferris. The new album consists of Waller on guitar and vocals, Greg Corbett on banjo and vocals, Darrin Aldredge on mandolin and vocals, Ronnie Davis on Bass and vocals, Rob Ickes on resophonic guitar and Greg Luck on fiddle and second guitar. These guys are right and tight. The new album picks out the most requested and best songs from the Country Gentlemen's long and winding career and rerecords them with today's much improved technology. Also, some of these crowd's favorites have never been released on CD until now. Great cuts featured on the album include "House Of The Rising Sun", which starts off slow and easy, but soon picks up to a breakneck, bluegrass pace. John D. Loudermilk's song "The Little Grave" is a stand-out, emotional song about one hunter's sudden change in outlook at the killing of a pheasant. Another good song is a cover of Steve Goodman's "The City Of New Orleans", where the band takes liberty with the lyrics at one point, changing "black men" to "gray men". Perhaps a comment on the fact that white men worked the rail yards also. Also included are wonderful covers of Merle Travis' "Dark As A Dungeon" and Gordon Lightfoot's "Don Quixote". Another great release from Florida's own Pinecastle Records, who release superb bluegrass albums from yesterday and today's greatest artists. |
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| MARAH FLOAT AWAY WITH THE FRIDAY NIGHT GODS**** ARTEMIS RECORDS WWW.MARAH-USA.COM WWW.ARTEMISRECORDS.COM |
| Anyone who misses the rock and roll bands of days past like Aerosmith, The Rolling- Stones, Creedence, early Springsteen, ect.- take heart, �cause Philly�s Marah has a new album out and it�s great. Their first album �Let�s Cut The Crap And Hook Up Later On Tonight� and their sophomore album �Kids In Philly� were both all about life in Philadelphia, and the songs didn�t paint a very pretty picture. These two releases were all about hardship, seedy characters, and the ugly cityscape that surrounded the band on a day to day basis. These surroundings made for two outstanding rock and roll albums that both received critical raves from music writers and fans alike. According to the band though, there was only so much that they could find to write about their hometown, they�d pretty much fished out that stream. They needed to get inspired for their third record and make some changes in the direction they wanted to take. So they packed up a few belongings, moved out of their apartments and hauled ass all the way out of the country. They ended up in Scotland of all places, and the next thing you know they got their new direction as well as their inspiration and came up with �Float Away With The Friday Night Gods�. The new album is a damn-near rock and roll masterpiece. It�s a definite, prime example of the fact that rock and roll is not anywhere near dead, and Marah is here to keep it kicking. Brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko, who both play guitar and sing are the spearhead of the band and then there�s Jon Kois on drums and Jamie Mahon on bass. All together they have a chemistry that boils over out of the beaker and creates a life-force all it�s own. The name �Marah� comes from the Bible (Exodus, chapter 15, verse 23) and translates to �bitter�. �Float Away With The Friday Night Gods� is one hell of a good album. With it�s big hooks, big chorus�s and twin guitar assault, it�s one release that just refuses to grow old. These guys, over the course of three albums, have steadily gotten better and evolved in a way that too few bands manage to pull-off nowadays. The album starts off with the first single �Float� which features one of the band�s heroes, Bruce Springsteen, on guitar and backing vocals. This is a song that I could play over and over again. The studio wizardry on this cut (as on all of the album�s cuts) will simply blow you away. I haven�t heard such a �rough polish� in a long time. This is the way records used to be made. The next song �Soul� is just as good as the first. These two brothers know how to write a great song, whether you call it rock, pop or whatever. Grand hooks and melodies abound. �Crying On An Airplane� is another winner. It�s about leaving someone you love and really hits home with it�s simple, yet right on the mark lyrics. �I�ve been crying on an airplane / Above the ocean / In the bathroom / I�ve been crying on an airplane / Near the heavens / In economy / I�ve been crying on an airplane / Filled with questions / Drinking small wines / I�ve been crying on a airplane / Because I�m Leaving / This is unbearable� Every song on this album deserves to be heard and relished, and other cool tunes include �Revolution�, �People Of The Underground�, �Shame�, and the final cut �Out In Style�. If you want to hear and album that will remind of when rock and roll was in it�s prime, then definitely check out Marah�s Float Away With The Friday Night Gods�. |