Posts Tagged ‘ Blues Rock ’

Album of the Week 11-2024: The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards


For a while, it seemed like tensions between the Robinson brothers had risen to a point where there would never be another Black Crowes album. Despite being a big fan of the band, I was fine with that personally, especially because guitarist Rich Robinson’s The Magpie Salute was far more enjoyable to me than anything The Black Crowes did post-‘Lions’. About five years ago, the unthinkable happened and the brothers started working together again to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of The Black Crowes’ incredible debut album ‘Shake Your Money Maker’. And today, their new album ‘Happiness Bastards’ suggests it was more than just a nostalgia-based thing.

So how does ‘Happiness Bastards’ measure up against the earlier work of The Black Crowes? Honestly: pretty well. While it does not quite capture the magic of their first two albums, I for one am extremely happy to hear that the increasingly dominant country influences of ‘Warpaint’ and ‘Before the Frost… Until the Freeze’ have largely disappeared. ‘Happiness Bastards’ is a rock album first and foremost. There are other influences here, but those are rooted in blues and soul rather than country, fortunately. While ‘Happiness Bastards’ does not sound exactly the same as early Black Crowes, it does restore their Stonesy swagger and Faces-esque songwriting chops.

Most of the songs on ‘Happiness Bastards’ are energetic and driven. That doesn’t necessarily mean we are dealing with a bunch of riff rockers though. ‘Dirty Cold Sun’ has a distinct funky feel that makes it feel like late seventies Stevie Wonder mixed with Jimmy Page riffs, which truly makes it one of the highlights of the album. ‘Cross Your Fingers’ starts out sounding like it will be the first acoustic ballad on the album, only to develop into a huge, monolithic riff that could have come right off ‘Lions’, while ‘Bleed It Dry’ is grimy southern blues. ‘Flesh Wound’ even sounds like sixties pop squeezed through a nineties rock filter.

Variation, as always, is one of The Black Crowes’ biggest strengths. What was kind of a relief to me is that it’s all different shades of rock. Only ‘Wilted Rose’ has a slight americana vibe, but it works because it’s simply a good ballad and exactly what the album needs at that point. Closer ‘Kindred Friend’ is more like the type of ballad a psychedelia band from the late sixties would record. If you primarily like the band’s Rolling Stones-inspired rock ‘n’ roll riffing, songs like ‘Wanting and Waiting’, ‘Follow the Moon’, the surprisingly aggressive ‘Rats and Clowns’ and the fantastic opener ‘Bedside Manners’ are exactly what you need.

Ultimately, my only minor criticism towards ‘Happiness Bastards’ is that I don’t think the tight, contemporary production job suits the material all that well. Apart from that, it honestly is a better comeback album than I could have wished for. Rich Robinson’s typically excellent songwriting has decided the direction for the album and that is a good thing, as that was always the best thing about The Black Crowes anyway. It seems like the songs motivated his brother Chris as well, as he ran with what he had and delivers one of his most energetic vocal performances in a long time.

Recommended tracks: ‘Dirty Cold Sun’, ‘Bedside Manners’, ‘Cross Your Fingers’

2024
03/17
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Album of the Week 46-2023: The Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker


Back when I discovered The Black Crowes, I was twelve or thirteen and therefore not really able to articulate this yet, but subconsciously, they immediately appealed to me because their songwriting was so much better than that of most of their peers. And although the band would later occasionally fail to find a middle ground between guitarist Rich Robinson’s fairly tight songwriting and his singing brother Chris’ hippie-inspired jam-heavy demands, their first two albums in particular are examples of some of the finest rock songwriting of all time. Many rock bands would envy a debut album as good as ‘Shake Your Money Maker’.

The Black Crowes are often clumsily categorized as a southern rock band. That is not entirely inaccurate for some of their later records, on which they sometimes went a bit overboard on the americana influences, but ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ is pretty much early seventies British rock through an American filter. The album is full of Stonesy riffs and grooves, but with a stronger emphasis on the soul influences the Robinsons grew up. In a way, The Black Crowes sounds like a transitional band Ronnie Wood would have been in on his way from Faces to the Rolling Stones.

As a result, even the hardest rocking songs on ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ have a distinct soulful feel to them. How that feel presents itself varies from song to song. ‘Thick ‘n Thin’ is built upon a fast shuffle that makes it swing remarkably well for such an uptempo song, while the much slower opener ‘Twice as Hard’ has a rhythm which drags in the best way possible. ‘Hard to Handle’ is an Otis Redding cover that the band somehow manages to make its own despite remaining fairly faithful to the original, while ‘Could I’ve Been So Blind’ has an almost gospel-like vibe in its chorus.

‘Shake Your Money Maker’ contains three ballads, which I would normally consider a bit much for a total of ten songs. They are all quite distinct, however, and two of them are really good. The exception being ‘Seeing Thing’, which drags on for far too long. ‘Sister Luck’ is probably my favorite of the ballads due to its unconventional structure and its lovely low-key chorus, but the more stripped-down ‘She Talks to Angels’ is excellent as well. ‘Jealous Again’ sort of brings together the extremes on the album by being a catchy, super-melodic song built upon a Stonesy riff that feels a bit lighter than average.

Not many bands in the early nineties managed to sound so incredibly authentic in their love of seventies British and American music without sounding like a watered-down version of their influences as The Black Crowes did. And although all their releases are quality albums, ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ and its follow-up ‘The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion’ have a focus that few of their later albums have. That focus all comes down to the excellent songwriting of the Robinsons being top priority over the performances. In fact, that may be why both albums still sound as fresh today as they did upon release.

Recommended tracks: ‘Tick n’ Thin’, ‘Jealous Again’, ‘Hard to Handle’, ‘Sister Luck’

2023
11/19
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Album of the Week 45-2023: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin


If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you probably know enough about music to not need me to tell you that Led Zeppelin’s first album is one of the finest debut albums in rock history. Arguably the best debut out of all the rock greats of its era, but that simple fact is quite surprising given the circumstances the album was recorded under. As a band, Led Zeppelin had been playing together for about a month when the first recording session for their self-titled debut album took place. With that in mind, it is a miracle how confident and powerful the album sounds.

What sets this album apart from Led Zeppelin’s later work is the stronger focus on performances rather than songwriting. The songwriter partnership between singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had not developed yet, which makes sense, given the fact that did not even meet until shortly before the album was recorded. Combined with the fact that the album had to be put together quite quickly – bassist John Paul Jones claims it was recorded in about fifteen hours – it is understandable that the bulk of the tracklisting consists of reworkings of old blues and folk songs.

Starting with those, the arrangements do tend to be quite different interpretations of the originals. The monstrously heavy – especially for the late sixties – ‘Dazed and Confused’ was something Page had worked on during his Yardbirds days already, but is transformed into proto-doom metal here. ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ likewise is turned from a folk song into a dynamic power ballad with surprisingly heavy hardrock sections, all sung incredibly by Plant. Closing track ‘How Many More Times’ technically is an original, but pays clear homage to Howlin’ Wolf, though its main riff is far too heavy to even be considered blues anymore.

That does not mean there isn’t any great original songwriting on the album. ‘Communication Breakdown’ is a short, uptempo track with an amount of aggression rarely heard outside of the Detroit garage rock scene at the time. Opening track ‘Good Times Bad Times’ almost sounds like a blatant attempt at a radio hit, except the band never wanted to release any singles and the song is actually features a really cool arrangement, especially in its vocal harmonies. ‘Your Time Is Gonna Gome’ would not have sounded out of place on a more folk-oriented southern rock album a couple of years later.

The amount of polish on ‘Led Zeppelin’ is unbelievable given how quickly the album was recorded. Page clearly had a vision of how he wanted the band to sound, because the arrangements and the production are incredible. Of course, Led Zeppelin would become an even better band later on as their own songwriting matured into something that defies categorization beyond just “rock”. However, it is interesting to see how the beginnings of a band that would become larger than life weren’t even that humble. A little cocky at times, perhaps, but if your skills are as good as displayed here, that is more than justified.

Recommended tracks: ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’, ‘Communication Breakdown’, ‘Dazed and Confused’, ‘How Many More Times’

2023
11/12
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Interview Vandenberg: Not Mellowing Out

Vandenberg Sin 2023
Photo by HJ van Velthoven

For the issue of Gitarist that will be in stores later this week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Adrian Vandenberg about the new Vandenberg album ‘Sin‘. However, space is limited in the magazine and not everything we discussed fit in the space we had available. Fortunately, there is plenty of space here for the other interesting subjects we discussed.

Starting with new Vandenberg singer Mats Levén, coincidentally one of my favorite singers. His arrival was surprising though, given that the last time I interviewed Adrian, Levén’s predecessor Ronnie Romero appeared to be there for the long haul. “No matter if you’re a musician or a baker, Covid messed up everything for everyone“, Adrian explains. “Ronnie lives in Romania and planning shows was possible a bit earlier in that part of the world than it was here. We had already cancelled our European tour four times at that point, which is a dramatic situation for an agent, of course.

Some clubs had already gone under during Covid, our English agent even ended up with burn-out symptoms as a result. By the time we finally could start planning the tour, Ronnie already had some other things going. So we said goodbye to Ronnie out of necessity.“

Finally

“Johan Cruijff once said that every disadvantage has its advantage. In this case: finding Mats. When I first contacted him, he said: I’m glad you finally called. I asked: what do you mean, ‘finally’? He said: when I read that you had started MoonKings, I was disappointed that you hadn’t asked me. Turns out that when he was in his mid-twenties, his mother brought the first two Vandenberg records back with her from London. So he knew all the songs by heart.

We more or less started working on the songs immediately. Ping-ponging ideas for the songs I was working on and at some point, I flew to Stockholm to go over the vocal melodies and the lyrical ideas. Before we knew it, we made a little record. I’m super happy with the results. You know him and some other people do, but he still remained kind of a secret to the audience at large.

He partly was to me as well. I actually kind of ‘forgot’ him, because I do remember him surviving working with Yngwie Malmsteen. That made me think: shit, of course! When we had to quit working with Ronnie, I stumbled upon Mats and checked what he was up to these days on YouTube. And it turns out that it works really well.

Especially because after ‘2020’, it seemed like a great idea to go just a bit heavier. Everyone who has been in the business for as long as I have eventually gets mellower through the years, endlessly playing ballads and whatnot. I enjoy doing something else than what I and other people are expecting. So instead of mellowing out, I decided to go into a higher gear. I’ll always be like an unruly teenager that way.“

Same Page

‘Sin’ also sees Vandenberg working with producer Bob Marlette again: “The reason I started working with Bob, is because the first time we spoke on the phone, he asked me: how do you see this band and yourself sounding? I said: primarily as if you walk into the rehearsal room of the band in question, it’s in-your-face and the band has the best rehearsal they could possibly have. That’s how I want it to sound. As if Led Zeppelin or a similar band from the seventies are 25 year-old guys now and have the technological possibilities we have now. He said: that’s exactly how I see it as well.

That is how it came out and I am super happy with the sound we achieved. Because it went incredibly smoothly. We developed and instant friendship. We still call each other frequently and we can’t wait to start working on something together again. We laugh our asses off when we do, because he also has a great sense of humor.

The funny thing is: in the late seventies and early eighties, he had a band with Rudy Sarzo and Frankie Banali, who played together in Quiet Riot. When we started headlining in America with the first Vandenberg record, we did a few shows with Quiet Riot as our support act. That’s when I immediately hit it off with Rudy and Frankie. I did not know that link was there when Bob and I spoke for the first time, but it was pretty much the first thing he told me. He’s incredibly musical. He did everything: from Black Sabbath to Tracy Chapman and everything in between. But we are very much on the same page musically.“

For guitar talk with Adrian Vandenberg, including talk about his new Peavey Vandenberg models, check out the September issue of Gitarist!

2023
08/23
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Album of the Week 33-2023: Vandenberg – Sin


Three years ago, Adrian Vandenberg surprised the rock world by reviving the band that carried his name and releasing ‘2020’, an album that was arguably his heaviest up until that point. Enough of a sleazy feel in the rhythms to call it hardrock, but the riffs are heavy enough to please the heavy metal crowd. Seemingly more confident with that particular style, ‘Sin’ ups the ante by having slightly heavier riffs and the mighty pipes of their new singer: rock and metal veteran Mats Levén. It also features the return of the only aspect ‘2020’ was missing: a surrealistic cover painting by Vandenberg himself.

Musically, ‘Sin’ isn’t miles away from the style of music Whitesnake played when Vandenberg toured massive arenas with them. Eighties hardrock and traditional heavy metal riffs galore, the chorus hooks are larger than life and the dark midtempo stomp of the title track even brings Whitesnake’s ‘Judgement Day’ to mind, at least until its moving chorus comes in. The lack of a keyboard player and productional gloss just makes ‘Sin’ hit a lot harder. Some of this stuff would not sound out of place on an eighties Dio album, while the speedier rockers have a sort of Van Halen-esque energy to them.

What also helps ‘Sin’ sound as good as it does must be a simple matter of confidence. ‘2020’ introduced Vandenberg as a viable twenty-first century band whose new work is at least as good as the material that put them on the map. Surely that gave them the confidence to come up with the Sabbath meets Zeppelin riffing of the likes of ‘Walking on Water’ and the awesome epic closer ‘Out of the Shadows’. Those songs are heavier than anything Vandenberg released prior and yet, it is not all that difficult to imagine them in the same set as ‘This is War’, ‘Wait’ or ‘Too Late’.

‘Sin’ is just as convincing when Vandenberg is treading more familiar waters though. Opener ‘Thunder and Lightning’ combines a nice and sleazy main riff with a structure reminiscent of the MoonKings song ‘Lust and Lies’. ‘Hit the Ground Running’ is built upon a nice riff that gallops along speedily, while ‘Light it Up’ ticks every eighties glam metal box without sounding the least bit dated. ‘House on Fire’ rubs up against hard rock clichés, but manages to subvert them before they get too familiar. It also has one of the best choruses on the album. The lack of pretension is one of the greatest strengths of the album’s songwriting.

Ultimately, the worst thing I can say about ‘Sin’ is that it does all the things that ‘2020’ did, only better. The songs are more memorable, there is just a big more swagger and energy, and Mats Levén is possibly the best singer in the world for this style of music. Not that Ronnie Romero was an amateur, but Levén’s power and grit sound far more natural. The most incredible thing about ‘Sin’ is how energetic the whole thing sounds though. Adrian Vandenberg will be seventy years old in a few months, but he sounds younger than he ever has here.

Recommended tracks: ‘Hit the Ground Running’, ‘Out of the Shadows’, ‘Sin’, ‘Thunder and Lightning’

2023
08/20
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Album of the Week 11-2023: The Answer – Sundowners


About five and a half years ago, ‘Solas’ completely blew me away. The Answer had always been a good rock band, occasionally great, but they outdid themselves by adding Celtic folk influences and surprisingly atmospheric rock elements to create something truly unique. It would have been difficult, if not downright impossible, to surpass that album. And fortunately, that’s not what the Northern Irish quartet tries to do on ‘Sundowners’. Instead, they went for a far more stripped-down, rootsy bluesrock sound. That may sound like ‘Sundowners’ is The Answer returning to the roots, but the album somehow sounds like nothing the band did before.

For starters, ‘Sundowners’ sounds a lot more American than the decidedly Anglo-Celtic ‘Solas’. In fact, ‘Sundowners’ is probably the closest thing to southern rock The Answer ever released. The exciting blend of hardrock, blues, soul and occasional subtle hints of americana brings to mind The Black Crowes, but The Answer is far more direct, song-oriented and therefore less jam-heavy. In some songs, it is surpising how little prominence there is in the mix for Paul Mahon’s rhythm guitar in favor of a Hammond organ, though Mahon is always somewhere in the background coloring the tracks.

‘Sundowners’ is at its best when it is built upon greasy, dirty soul grooves. Luck would have it that most of the album is just that. ‘Want You to Love’ me is a prime example of this side of the band: if it wasn’t for Mahon’s fairly overdriven electric guitar, the song would not have sounded out of place on a late sixties or early seventies Stax record. ‘Get Back on It’ and ‘Blood Brother’ are so groove-driven that they feel like they could go on forever on stage without getting even the least bit dull. ‘California Rust’ feels a bit more like a typical The Answer rocker, but its loose, swinging rhythm makes it fit the paradigm of ‘Sundowners’ perfectly.

That does not mean there is nothing to enjoy here for people who primarily want to hear The Answer as a rock band. ‘Cold Heart’ is a concise, catchy rocker that could have easily fit on ‘Everyday Demons’, ‘Oh Cherry’ is a nice stomper built on a fantastic bass line by Micky Waters and ‘All Together’ brings Cream at their heaviest to mind. The ballads are every bit as good. ‘No Salvation’ has a bit of a seventies Stones feel, though I’ll personally take Cormac Neeson’s passionate howl over Mick Jagger any day, while closer ‘Always Alright’ is the only track on which the acoustic guitars are as prominent as on ‘Solas’.

Not trying to make a second ‘Solas’ is the smartest decision The Answer could have made. While that would have probably resulted in something that sounds like a watered-down version of a masterpiece, ‘Sundowners’ feels like a fresh take on what The Answer did during their earliest years, albeit notably more rootsy than before. It also shows that as a rock band, you don’t need much more than a bunch of good songs and a bit of confidence, though having a singer as good as Cormac Neeson doesn’t exactly hurt either.

Recommended tracks: ‘Want You to Love Me’, ‘Blood Brother’, ‘Cold Heart’

2023
03/19
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Album of the Week 04-2023: DeWolff – Love, Death & In Between


Maybe it is because they were extremely young when they started out, but DeWolff somehow managed to evolve in a very interesting way without alienating most of the fans they had since day one. Starting out heavily inspired by the psychedelic rock of the late sixties and early seventies, the Dutch trio slowly but surely adopted a more southern rock type of sound, with plenty of room for americana despite the songs becoming shorter on average. Their new album ‘Love, Death & In Between’ is another interesting phase in their evolution, as it contains a rather generous helping of soul.

Last year, DeWolff collaborated with their similarly vintage-minded friends of The Dawn Brothers on the extremely soulful ‘Double Cream’ album. In a recent interview I had with DeWolff’s singer and guitarist Pablo van de Poel, he acknowledged that some of the songs on ‘Love, Death & In Between’ could have been on ‘Double Cream’ in some shape or form and vice versa. That does not mean the former is a full-on soul album, but the influences are notable among the greasy rock ‘n’ roll and bluesy guitar playing. It makes the song material and performances on ‘Love, Death & In Between’ particularly spirited.

Anyone who looks at the track lengths before listening to the album would be forgiven for thinking DeWolff brought back the lengthy psychedelic rock for ‘Rosita’. However, this sixteen-minute centerpiece of the album plays more like a medley than a song that squeezes all the possibilities out of a handful of riffs. Its movements mirror all the different influences heard on ‘Love, Death & In Between’, moving back and forth between subdued New Orleans grooves, Leon Russell-esque gospel-meets-americana choruses and rock ‘n’ roll exuberance. Lyrically as well as atmosphere-wise, it feels like a conceptual suite.

‘Rosita’ is hardly the only highlight on the album though. For me, ‘Heart Stopping Kinda Show’ is really set on fire by its Stonesy rock ‘n’ roll groove. ‘Wontcha Wontcha’ is equally reminiscent of what the Stones would do in the early seventies, while the dark blues of ‘Mr. Garbage Man’ effectively channels the spirit of Peter Green. ‘Night Train’ is the perfect song to open the album in how the band and their guest musicians purely kick on the song’s fat groove for a while before building some crazy guitar and organ licks on top of it. ‘Message For My Baby’ is probably the most driven rocker on the album and the nocturnal groove of closer ‘Queen Of Space & Time’ is just awesome.

Through the years, DeWolff has come to be known for several things. Their albums always sound like they have been recorded in the seventies at the very latest both stylistically and sonically, no doubt due to the fact that their recordings tend to be fully analog. Also, despite the loose, jammy feel of the songs – emphasized this time by the album being record almost entirely live in the studio – is kept in check by the fact that the songs are actually quite tightly written and arranged. And if the name of the band is on an album cover, it is simply a seal of quality for those who like old, largely American-styled roots rock.

Recommended tracks: ‘Heart Stopping Kinda Show’, ‘Mr. Garbage Man’, ‘Rosita’, ‘Night Train’

2023
01/29
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Album of the Week 43-2022: Joanne Shaw Taylor – Nobody’s Fool


Joanne Shaw Taylor is many things. A great guitarist with a fiery, yet surprisingly economic playing style. An excellent singer with a warm, husky alto. But above all, Joanne Shaw Taylor is a fantastic songwriter. And it is that side of her that is front and center on her new album ‘Nobody’s Fool’. Because of that, ‘Nobody’s Fool’ is quite possibly the most varied album she has released so far, or at least on par with the wildly eclectic ‘Almost Always Never’. And yet, ‘Nobody’s Fool’ has a very pleasant flow, which makes it an immensely satisfying listen.

Variation is the biggest strength of ‘Nobody’s Fool’. The soul influences are more pronounced than on any of Taylor’s previous albums, but there are southern rock songs, acoustic ballads and tightly arranged, poppy guitar rockers. This is great news for anyone but the most conservative blues purists, but even for them there is plenty of heartfelt, blues-inspired guitar playing on the album. Sonically, ‘Nobody’s Fool’ is certainly Taylor’s most adventurous album to date. She experiments with a wider variety of acoustic, clean and overdriven guitar sounds than ever, sometimes layering them on top of each other to great effect.

All of this would be pointless if the songs weren’t any good. Fortunately, they are. ‘Just No Getting Over You (Dream Cruise)’ was an excellent choice to be the first single, as its greasy soul grooves and Stonesy riffing certainly wet the appetite for the album. ‘Then There’s You’ is a nice ragged bluesrocker given a rootsy edge by the way the acoustic and electric guitars interact, while the opening title track would not have sounded out of place on any of the Allman Brothers albums with Dickey Betts as the main songwriter, with the main difference being that Taylor has a better feel for tight hooks.

When ‘Nobody’s Fool’ strays further from Taylor’s core sound, however, it is just as satisfying. ‘Figure It Out’ marries sixties style pop melodies with rough, pointy riffs somewhat reminiscent of Joan Jett, while ‘Runaway’ is a sunny pop song with upbeat guitar work. ‘The Leaving Kind’ is a fantastic acoustic-based ballad that sounds like it ought to be accompanying a dramatic scene in a black and white movie, while the other ballad ‘Fade Away’ is beautifully subdued and emotional. An absolute highlight, however, is ‘Bad Blood’, an exciting track with a monstrous groove and reverberating guitars reminiscent of spaghetti westerns, but also an excellent build-up in tension.

Signing to a label owned by Joe Bonamassa – who guests but thankfully doesn’t sing on ‘Won’t Be Fooled Again’ – fortunately has not limited Joanne Shaw Taylor to making blues records. In fact, ‘Nobody’s Fool’ is just about as far removed from blues an artist can get whilst still retaining a blues foundation. Since songwriting on the edge of multiple rootsy styles has always been Taylor’s forte, I am glad to hear that aspect of her artistry being what ‘Nobody’s Fool’ is all about. Anyone with a feel for blues, soul and classic rock should give the album at least a shot. You will not regret it.

Recommended tracks: ‘Just No Getting Over You (Dream Cruise)’, ‘Bad Blood’, ‘The Leaving Kind’

2022
10/30
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Album of the Week 40-2022: Erja Lyytinen – Waiting For The Daylight


Honorary monikers can be compliments for musicians. But they can just as easily be too limiting to properly describe what they are doing. Case in point: Erja Lyytinen. For a while now, she has been known as Finland’s blues queen. But if her new album ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ proves anything, it would be that she is so much more than just a blues musician. First and foremost, she is a fantastic songwriter. ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ is a varied album full of excellent guitar-driven rock and pop songs, some of them barely even revealing Lyytinen’s blues roots.

Blues is never far away from what Lyytinen is doing and there is plenty of her renowned slide guitar work on ‘Waiting For The Daylight’. However, the album focuses more on her strengths as a songwriter rather than as a musician. There are definitely some bouts of great musicianship here – from Lyytinen herself as well as her excellent backing band – but all of it is in service of the songs. The amount of variation on the album is one of its biggest strengths. Lyytinen’s songs range from raw and rootsy to more polished productions, without ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ ever sounding like a disjointed mess.

While the album starts promising enough, the song that really sold me on ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ is ‘Run Away’. It is an expertly arranged, atmospheric and somewhat dark guitar pop song with a brilliant chorus and Lyytinen’s best vocal performance on the album. There is a subdued anger to the vocals that never really explodes, which makes ‘Run Away’ an exciting listen every time. ‘Last Girl’ is another one where the melodic rock influences are at the forefront, while ‘Love Bites’ sounds like a particularly dramatic show jazz number reinterpreted brilliantly by a rock band.

On the more rootsy side of things, ‘Diamonds On The Road’ is a masterpiece with its groovy main riff and subtle guitar arrangement. ‘You Talk Dirty’ is the oldest composition on here and starts out feeling like a more traditional bluesrocker, but the way it works towards its awesome climax is fairly unique. The title track is about half stoner rock, half ballad and builds towards a fantastic classic rock guitar solo near the end. That ultimately is Lyytinen’s biggest quality as a songwriter and arranger: to always find a surprising twist on traditional forms. Opener ‘Bad Seed’ is probably closest to a standard bluesrocker, had it not been for its subdued pre-chorus and the distinct Indian-sounding scales in its guitar solo.

Don’t let the blues queen moniker scare you from listening to Erja Lyytinen if the genre isn’t your thing. ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ is so much more than twelve-bar progressions and improvised pentatonic licks. It is the work of a mature songwriter who knows how to employ all the tools in her arsenal. That includes rootsy riffs and melodically strong slide guitar solos, but also carefully crafted arrangements and highly memorable melodies. The album is simply full of excellent guitar music, regardless of genre. And if that is your instrument of choice, you would do yourself a great favor by listening to ‘Waiting For The Daylight’.

Recommended tracks: ‘Run Away’, ‘Diamonds On The Road’, ‘Waiting For The Daylight’

2022
10/09
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Album of the Week 35-2022: Bywater Call – Remain


While the blues and roots scene is full of excellent musicians, good songwriters are a bit harder to come by. However, when both disciplines come together, the results can be spectacular. Such is the case for Bywater Call’s incredible sophomore album ‘Remain’. The Canadian septet combines elements of blues, soul and subtle hints of southern rock into irresistible songs with excellent vocals. ‘Remain’ sounds lively, the interaction between the musicians is fantastic, but most importantly, the songs are written and arranged really well. There is a timeless quality to ‘Remain’, which makes it the most pleasantly surprising music release of the year for me.

One of the biggest assets of ‘Remain’ is that no musician tries to play anyone else off the recordings. Sure, there is a lot of room for the powerful, slightly raspy alto of Meghan Parnell, but even she isn’t a dominant factor on the album. When the horns need to set up a melody or there needs to be some space for one of Dave Barnes’ short, often surprisingly spiky guitar solos, Parnell gladly gets out of the way. Having horns and keyboards also allows the Canadians to experiment with multiple approaches for their compositions, keeping the album fresh throughout its fifty-minute runtime.

Another thing that works in Bywater Call’s favor is that the band doesn’t consist of traditionalists. A song like ‘Let Me Be Wrong’ has its roots firmly in mid-sixties soul, but also is a tightly arranged song that could have been an Amy Winehouse hit had she still been alive today. ‘Go Alone’ is nearly a fairly beefy riff rocker, one with a cool guitar solo by Barnes to boot, but the horns and organ add a soulful flavor. And that’s how it makes complete sense that the propulsive funky rhythms of ‘Sea We Swim’, the short, riffy closer ‘Bring It Back’ and the almost poppy ‘Fortune’ are on the same album.

If I was a lazy reviewer, I would describe Bywater Call as sounding like The Black Crowes with a female lead singer. Bywater Call thankfully dwells less on country and americana, opting for soul instead. It is quite difficult to imagine the gospel leanings of ‘Locked’ on a Crowes album, while Bywater Call is far more about the songs than about the loose jam feel. Bywater Call never meanders on ‘Remain’. There is plenty of room for the songs to take on a different life on the stage, but it appears memorable hooks and other recognizable parts were the main focus of the songwriting process for ‘Remain’.

Given all the traditions roots fans value so much, it is difficult to be surprisining when playing that style. And yet, that is exactly what Bywater Call does on ‘Remain’. It is rare to find such good songwriting and such strong arrangements in a style that is known for its jams coming to life approach. And yet, ‘Remain’ has a live energy that is uncommon on composition-focused releases. As such, Bywater Call is the best of both worlds. With – and I cannot emphasize this enough – fantastic vocals. If you enjoy any of the styles mentioned in this review, do yourself a favor and give ‘Remain’ a spin.

Recommended tracks: ‘Let Me Be Wrong’, ‘Falls Away’, ‘Bring It Back’

2022
09/04
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