| CD REVIEW |
| When I first heard Brian Cober and his "Southern Ontario gothic rockers" perform at Grossman's, well over a year ago, I was amazed with both his vocals (shades of Marc Bolan and Lou Reed on the glam-rock side, and Willie Nelson on the country) and manual dexterity on slide guitar! There was hardly anyone there at first, on that regular Sunday night gig there, but the dozen or so who were there were absolutely spellbound! Towards the end of the evening, the place was packed (as usual, I learned)! Having become recently re-acquainted with Brian at to-nite's Winter Solstice Party at the Orbit Room (along with Maria Del Mar from The Nationals), I was delighted to obtain some of this prodigy's "stuff" in a more readily accessible format. Produced by "Big" Ben Richardson (formerly of Saints & Sinners, with Jerome Godboo) and Alec Fraser (Jack DeKeyzer, Paul Fenton, Fathead, etc.), the nearly all-original CD (except Ted Taylor's "Only the Lonely Know") starts off with a Cajun swinger called "Lay It On" and then gets into a psychedelic groover called "I Had A Dream". The aforementioned "Only the Lonely Know" gets an incredible work-out, with Slavka on 2nd guitar, while "Not An Ordinary Man" (an accurate self-portrait, to be sure) snappily rocks the blues away, with debonair co-writer Paul McNamara scoring a heavy underlining of bass guitar and Ian Green Kent relentlessly continuing his driving force on drums. "Don't Know What You Got" is a manic, feel-good, combination of fast-paced reggae rhythm/rock'n'roll boogie-woogie (featuring Bruce Griffen on piano) - one of the best tracks, in my opinion. "Pound o' Pain" is too uniquely weird in its distorted slide to be considered anything other than a "Picasso of the blues". The guys get upbeat again with another sassy boogie-woogie called "Nowhere Left to Ride" and we get the full effect of that double slide work. Brian's definitely uncanny vocal similarity to Lou Reed (especially if you've ever heard "Satellite of Love") stands out clearly on "Listen Up" in this tribute to maternal advice, and the back-up vocals by TIBI leave you wanting to hear much more from her. I loved the Motown feel (with a twist) on this one, with outstanding bass and organ (Eric Webster). Jeanette Yee and Nick Kent also contributed on the CD on congas and percussion, respectively. The CD ends perfectly with a salute to the Kensington Market area of Toronto (Spadina/College) with a jazzy little felinesque number appropriately called "Kensington Kat", espousing the virtues of living independently and freely - absolutely wonderful! I've really never seen anyone play slide guitar like a keyboard and it's really quite fascinating to see Brian and his music pals in a "live" setting! Along with their originals, they cover tunes by the likes of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Junior Wells, Elmore James, Taj Mahal, B.B. King and Sonny Boy Williamson. |
| DOUBLE SLIDE - THE NATIONALS |
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