Band: Tower of Power
Title: Great American Soulbook
Rating: 8

Writer: Rick Galusha

Combine one of recorded music finest horns bands with the best of the best soul songs and you get the new Tower of Power album, ‘Great American Soulbook.’ While mass appeal has overtly missed this terrific bay area act, for more than four decades (’68 – present) Tower of Power have graced, albeit surreptitiously, some of radio and recordings most popular acts including; Aerosmith, Elton John, Little Feat, Phish, Santana, Heart, Huey Lewis and the News, the Monkees, Santana, Elkie Brooks, Elton John, John Lee Hooker, Rod Stewart, Jefferson Starship, Mickey Hart, Spyro Gyra, Lyle Lovett, Poison, Phish, Toto, and the Brothers Johnson.

Perhaps the comfort of this album is that there are no surprises. Across their 22 albums the band has been consistent and ranged from brilliant to good. As the title of the album implies, TOP covers twelve well known soul songs including; Billy Paul’s ‘Me and Mrs. Jones,’ a medley of James Brown hits (an early influence on the band’s sound development) and Bill Wither’s ‘Who is He and What is He to You.’ Perhaps the highlight of the album is Tom Jones version of Sam & Dave’s, ‘Thank-you’ (as covered earlier by Z.Z. Top). Other guest appearances include; Sam Moore’s (Sam & Dave) cover of the Otis Redding hit, ‘Mr. Pitiful, ’ two songs with British youngster Joss Stone who joins the band for, ‘It Takes Two’ and ‘Your Precious Love’ and the aforementioned Huey Lewis on, ‘634-5789.’

Any song on this album is immediately radio friendly and music fans will find the performances and singing to be excellent. No, TOP is not breaking any new ground with this release but perhaps seeing the rewards that Rod Stewart and others had using well known covers to find financial success, Tower of Power has fallen back on their early influences and personal favorites to release an album that most soul music fans and many blues fans will find hours of enjoyment listening to.

album review: Dani Wilde, 'heal my blues'

Artist: Dani Wilde
Title: ‘heal my blues’

Much like Motown, RUF Records has created a formula to produce “blues” albums with European overtones that are beginning to be embraced by a wide, white American audience. More than anything else the ‘Suburban Blues’ audience craves a wailing guitar and smooth melody lines. Recently I asked friends to name their top blues albums of the last decade; one said simply, “the one with the guitar solos.” And so it is.

At the dawn of this new millennium Europe seems to be making an effort to replicate the blues boomerang of England in the 1960’s and Wilde seems to be a full fledged member of that movement. To reach wider audiences radio and music gets homogenized. Wilde’s new album, ‘heal my blues’ is a near perfect example of the “demographic specific slotting” that we see in “pop” music today. Wilde’s songs are slick and entertaining; well arranged tracks that include appropriate blues textures and good production value. If you’re a listener that defines “authentic” blues as rough and unfinished; this is not an album for you. However, if you are among the vast unwashed masses that appreciate a well performed tune with sufficient emoted emotion and over arching guitar solos – you will probably be drawn into Ms. Wilde’s album. Harp playing brother Will Wilde’s wailing jumps in and out of the songs with apropos vigor. Surely this is exactly the type of album that radio programmers interested in building a larger audience will embrace. Wilde “sells” her music through visual as well as visceral content creating an enriched entertainment value that many acts today miss.

Is it credible? It’s British. Can the British play the blues? Some would say that from Peter Green to the Hoax, the answer has been yes. Will everyone agree? No. Does it matter? It only matters if it is your money. Is there a marketing machine behind Wilde and is it gathering momentum? Yup! Will you play it on your radio show? Until the cows come home. This is a packaged artist that can check all the boxes of being a blues artist but will not add anything to the genre; there is nothing original going on here (but the point is, there doesn’t have to be). Wilde’s music and showmanship is unlikely to create a circle of lasting influence or be escalated to significant stature by gathering critical acclaim. None-the-less, it is well done, it is fun and chances are good you’ll be seeing Wilde and band at a venue near you. Chances are even better that Wilde will strike a chord with appreciative festival audiences who use the term “great” with ease but with the usual lack of discernment.

Album Review: Plateros, Hang On

Plateros: Hang On

Levi Plateros is this year’s version of Los Lonely Boys minus the kooky antics and overdriven hype. The Plateros band includes what I assume is his father on bass and a cousin on drums. Their multi-layered vocal lines are pure and sweet. While Levi’s muse is a blasting guitar line set over rich melody lines, this band can pile-drive a song with the best of the blues genre’s bashers and then just as easily pull back with heavy pop music hooks and soft, melody rich tracks.

In small doses the band’s uses its unique musical influences to add a sonic flair that are subtle yet compellingly interesting. In the end Levi runs wild with loaming and lilting guitar solos that likely draw in all but the most harden blues-rock guitar aficionados’. For some the lack of chain-saw ratcheting will be a turn off and thus the band perceived as having too much melody; however, if the debut album by Los Lonely Boys ever got your toes tapping – Plateros is a fine second step.

Least we remiss the marketing aspect, Plateros is an all Navajo band and fits nicely among other indigenous and/or sibling acts like; Santana, Indigenous, Los Lobos, Homemade Jamz Blues Band and the aforementioned Los Lonely Boys. Again, this is a band worth keeping your eye on and it is fair to expect big things from them in the future.

Album Review: Aynsley Lister, equalibrium

Aynsley Lister: equilibrium

For anyone that has been listening to ‘Pacific Street Blues & Americana’ over the years you know I love a well played guitar. Love it to the point of being downright discerning – which is a nice way to say finicky. While tasty players like B. B. King, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy are perhaps the progenitors of tasty blues licks – there is a new generation of players that deserve some kudos. Yes, we all lost something special when Stevie Ray died. Among the players I really enjoy are included; Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford, the late Rory Gallagher, Mato Nanji of Indigenous and Aynsley Lister. Lister is the new kid on the block and based upon his last two albums; ‘Upside Down’ and this new effort, ‘equilibrium’ Englishman Lister has easily moved solidly into the world’s “next big thing” slot.

In a traditional sense, if Luther Allison is the blues, then Lister ain’t. Sorry folks, no 12 bars here. Instead Lister uses the tones and textures of contemporary electric blues against a melody rich lyric line that is immediately accessible and immediately enjoyable. While the blues-rock genre is ripe with slingers – there are few bonafide songwriters in the mix and, as perhaps the first real blues-rock songwriter might say, “Move over rover and let Jimi take over.”

Lister’s ability to lift and soar while honoring the song is an impressive art. His bursts of energy lie beneath slower moving passages that provide emotional uplifts that are “gob-smackingly good” and at the same time beautiful and genuine. From the perspective of player records for the last twenty years, Aynsley Lister is clearly a talent worthy of your attention and interest.

Blog: August 13, 2009

I recently got into a conversation with a local impresario. It seems there are more n’ more shows in the market every year. As we have seen in the housing, electrical, airline and energy industries, when supply dramatically exceeds demand there is a retrenchment. In this example, between the free shows and the possibly over-abundance of quality line-up shows – there simply isn’t sufficient audience to support all these shows. On first blush this is hardly a negative; when was the last time someone had the gall to complain that there was too much going on in Omaha? So we have it pretty good right now; as the Horseshoe Casino realized by literally having to give away concert tickets to see the recent ARC Angels show. So tune your fiddle Nero as amid a recessionary decline there is less and less ticket buying capacity up against more and more shows.

Interestingly, since CD’s sales have fallen more than 50% in the past five years, the Wall Street Journal recently discussed how CD’s are being used to drive concert ticket sales as artist derive income from performance now rather than album sales. So where does the “equilibrium point” between ticket demand and artist availability meet? The market will determine. I know this; my days of paying $75 or more for concert tickets is over. And if very many others feel as I do; that either than cannot afford high priced tickets or they simply see their home, vacation or IRA as a better investment, artists are going to be getting crunched from both sides.
Think about that; CD sales are nearly inconsequential and a recessionary period coupled with too many concerts will likely drive ticket prices down. Seemingly one can draw the impression that contemporary society is reducing the value of music across numerous fronts.

Is it fair to say that Bono was the last rock star?

While I still place a premium on recorded music, I find the thuggery of modern sports to be beyond the pale. As a society we are paying virtually uneducated brawlers millions to throw a ball across the plate while we ask the educators of the next generation of American’s to use their comparatively meager incomes to buy supplies that our education system can no longer afford to purchase.

Where does the source of this problem lie?

With you of course - And with me. As a society we get what we pay for. In America today we vote with our dollars and more of us are voting for ‘Tiger Woods’ and ‘A Rod’ than that gal in the classroom teaching our kids. Damn shame it is too. It seems to me we are voting less and less for the ‘Eric Clapton’s’ of the world but still dramatically over-paying for the ‘Bob Stoops’ of the world. So before you bitch, look in the mirror – there lies the problem.

Album Review: Kris Lager Band - 'The Might Quinn'

Artist: Kris Lager Band
Title: The Mighty Quinn
Writer: Rick Galusha

Along with Des Moines’ Matt Woods, Nebraska’s Kris Lager has laid the groundwork to become the High Plains’ next blues act of note. Earning their road apprenticeship as the band for Mato Nanji’s Indigneous, The Kris Lager Band has release their fourth album, ‘The Mighty Quinn.’ Like many bands that are allowed to develop at the less than frantic pace of today’s internet driven music industry, Lager’s second and third CD’s displayed progressive improvement and strong lyrical melody lines that are indicative of the early bluesrock progenitors such as The Allman Brothers, Bonney & Delaney and Leon Russell. As the critically applauded band, ‘The Screaming Cheetah Wheelies’ learned however, this is a narrowing genre today and although the Derek Trucks Band is doing well with their World Music come blues feel, few others within this field seem to rise above a regional cult status.

‘The Might Quinn’ is a powerful record where the nuisance of the inter-play between Lager’s slide guitar and Miah Weir’s keyboards can, at times, over-shadow the songs but, after numerous playings, Lager’s true-to-self style slowly transcends and the true power behind the album emerges. This is not your passive listening, blues friendly, compact disc. Instead the listener is required to invest in the audio experience as the band moves through complicated but enjoyable passages.

On the track, “Mean Old World” Lager’s emotive vocals lines broach new areas for the band as they pioneer in a more tentative yet heart-felt layer brushed up against an aggressive slide guitar line. On ‘Hold On’ the band melds an island rhythm over rich blues textures akin to the sounds of “461 Ocean Boulevard.” While not an easy album to digest in initial airings, ‘The Might Quinn’ shows the Kris Lager Band growing by writing songs that are well outside of the narrow confines of the blues industry today. This is a serious album that is filled with songs that separates the partisans from the artisans and like anything work having – the climb is worth the view.

“Mama always told me not to look into the eye's of the sun, but mama, that's where the fun is.”

Album Review: Cyril Neville, Brand New Blues

Artist: Cyril Neville
Title: Brand New Blues
Writer: Rick Galusha

Whether the Neville Brothers or the Marsalis’ are the first family of the New Orleans music community, both have a ready history of making fine music. And whether as solo artists, members of the Meters or recording together as, ‘The Neville Brothers,’ the Neville’s have , since 1954, made some highly listenable recordings including; ‘Fiyo on the Bayou,’ ‘Yellow Moon,’ and ‘Brothers Keeper.’

In the linear notes of his first solo album in eight years, Cyril Neville notes that Tab Benoit told him, “go blues” in 2005. While Cyril Neville’s album, ‘Brand New Blues’ may be his “blues record,” for me it is a more focused outing for the New Orleans native.

Often albums by the Neville Brothers include messages of social criticism. While the blues is usually personal, the outcry from New Orleans musicians over the 2005 flooding of New Orleans has been pervasive. On this record Neville delves elbow deep into the issue. In the linear notes writer John Sinclair tells readers that the flooding of New Orleans, “wasn’t really due to natural causes but was actually caused by the refusal of Congress to appropriate sufficient funding.” The actual finding, done in part by Louisiana State University, is, “Investigators criticized Congress for years of irregular funding and state and local authorities for failing to maintain the levees properly.” Sinclair goes on to say the flood was, “merely a trigger for institutional racism and civic ugliness.” You may agree or disagree where the blame lies; or the extent of who holds how much blame, however as a source for anguish and therefore material, the flood of New Orleans is a contemporary catastrophe and is now a part of America’s ‘disaster songs lexicon.’

So let’s talk about the music. This is not a “great” album in that it will not be widely embraced by the blues listener base. Instead it is a very strong record by a known American artist that aficionados of New Orleans and/or niche areas of blues and roots music will greatly enjoy. What Cyril shows us is a refraction of how the textures of blues music can be amalgamated into other genres and sounds. The sense and feel of this album is immediately familiar and, after hearing this recording, fans of the Neville Brothers will better recognize how Cyril contributes to the overall sound of his, ‘family groove.’

Like nearly any recording based in the poly-rhythms of New Orleans, it’s hard to keep your toes from tapping and your feet from dancing. ‘Cream Them Beans,’ is the equivalent of a Crescent City 12 bar jam as Neville talks over the track while the band rollicks.

Traditional blues radio programmers will want to focus on the album’s closing track, a cover of Bob Marley’s, ‘Slave Driver’ (where Marley’s album title, ‘catch a fire’ is coined.) This is a slow, highly textured track with a languid, slow burn. (Interestingly, Severn’s latest R n’ B singer Charles Wilson covers Marley’s ‘Is this Love’ on his latest release, “Troubled Child.”) Neville adds to Marley’s composition as he sings, “When I first saw what happen to New Orleans, my blood ran cold. My people’s freedom bought and sold,” in what develops into a quarter by quarter review of the current state of the 3rd Coast’s finest city…in its current form.

This is a good album; a credible showcase but it needs the listener’s full focus and an understanding that Neville is going to use his music as a vehicle for political advocating and, at times, I just want to hear music.