The Reverend's Favorite Reissues & Archival Albums of 2024

As a child of the '70s, although my musical tastes didn't calcify after the decade like so many of my contemporaries, the exciting and adventuresome music I heard during my teenage years left an indelible imprint on the development of my musical preferences. My purchases of archival and reissue albums tend to be of the classic rock and blues genres, which is why the following list of my favorites in this category for the year tend to lean towards albums released during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s...

A lifelong curmudgeon, I bitch and moan and avoid pricey box set reissues that load multiple discs down with demo tracks and alternate takes...there's a reason why a lot of this stuff remained unreleased for decades and they largely bore me to tears. In many cases, unless a reissue provides a sonic upgrade on the CD or vinyl that I already own, or the value-added inclusion of an unreleased live set, I'll spend my money on graphic novels instead. But show me a long-lost rock or blues LP from the '60s and I'm all in. This year provided a wealth of archival releases, and a pleasant surprise in my discovery of Paul Ngozi and the Ngozi Family, '70s-era African rockers that kicks ass. Here to follow are my favorite reissue and archival albums of 2024...

Bad Brains - I Against I
Bare Jr. - Boo-Tay
Can - Live In Keele 1977
Albert Collins, Robert Cray & Johnny Copeland - Showdown!
James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell & Billy Branch - Harp Attack!
Dead Boys - Return of the Living Dead Boys
Flamin' Groovies - Let It Rock!
Rory Gallagher - The Best of Rory Gallagher At the BBC
Grateful Dead - From the Mars Hotel
Joe Grushecky - Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology
Lightnin' Hopkins w/Sonny Terry - Last Night Blues
Skip James - Tonight!

Steve Marriott - Lost & Found 1973-1977
Steve Marriott - Poor Man's Rich Man 1978-1987
Paul Ngozi - The Ghetto
Ngozi Family - 45,000 Volts
Pearl Harbour - Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too
Little Feat - Feats Don't Fail Me Now
Albert King - Live Wire/Blues Power
Charlie Patton - Father of the Delta Blues
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
Hound Dog Taylor - Beware of the Dog!
The Damned - AD 2022: Live In Manchester
The Damned - Shadowed Tales From Mulhouse
The Faces - The BBC Session Recordings    
The Pixies - Pixies At the BBC

The Replacements - Not Ready for Prime Time
The Who - Live At Shea Stadium
The Yardbirds - Psycho Daisies
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs

The Reverend's Favorite New Albums of 2024

For whatever prurient reasons, I've been checking out the various "best of" album lists for 2024 in different publications. As I've stated elsewhere, I'm old as dirt, and a lot of today's pop music isn't being made for me. I'm OK with this...my tastes are pretty eclectic, anyway. But I've noticed a trend where rock 'n' roll and blues music have been edged out by pop and hip-hop (f/k/a R&B) artists, many of whom will likely record an album or two before disappearing into obscurity...

Much of today's disposable pop music does little but enrich the bank accounts of record label execs, and few of those featured today will forge long-term careers. As for rock 'n' roll, with the exception of Fontaines D.C. and Jack White, I'm seeing few legit "rock" LPs on these young writers' lists, and absolutely no blues grooves. So I thought I'd put together my own danged list. These aren't necessarily the 30 "best" albums of the year to anybody but me, and the list largely reflects the new music I bought (or was sent a promo copy of & loved) in 2024...

The Black Keys - Ohio Players
Cedric Burnside - Hill Country Love
Calidoscopio - Scorpio Rising
Steve Conte - The Concrete Jangle
Alejandro Escovedo - Echo Dancing
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band - Rare Dreams
Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers - Can't Outrun A Memory
Robyn Hitchcock - 1967
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets - Indoor Safari
Willie Nile - Live At Daryl's House Club
Peter Perrett - The Cleansing

Greg Prevost - After the Wars
Sugaray Rayford - Human Decency
Redd Kross - Red Kross

Sour Ops - Evangeline
Aaron Lee Tasjan - Stellar Evolution
Tennessee Blues Mob - Deep Dark Alibi
The Blessings - Woke Up With the Noonday Devil
The Church - Eros Zeta + The Perfumed Guitars
The Fleshtones - It’s Getting Late (...and More Songs About Werewolves)
The Higher State - Internecine Free
The Loons - Memories Have Faces
Walter Trout - Broken
Various Artists - Can't Steal My Fire
Jack White - No Name

White Animals - Star Time
Steve Wynn - Make It Right
X - Smoke & Fiction

Sami Yaffa - Satan’s Helpers War Lazer Eyes & The Money Pig Circus

Archive Review: Howlin’ Wolf’s Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog (1994)

Howlin’ Wolf is one of those blues artists that even non-fans of the genre recognize. Born as Chester Burnett in 1910 in West Point, Mississippi, he picked up the guitar in his late teens, mentored by Blues legend Charlie Patton. A contemporary of Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Sonny Boy Williamson, Burnett often played alongside these greats as they all traveled the same Southern blues circuit. It wasn’t until the late 1940s, after a stint in the army during World War II, that Burnett decided to pursue music as a full-time vocation.

Howlin’ Wolf’s Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog

Moving northward to West Memphis, Arkansas, Howlin’ Wolf began recording sides for Chicago’s Chess label through Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service. Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog presents 14 of these Memphis cuts, recorded in the early ‘50s and featuring the young bluesman backed by talents such as Hubert Sumlin and James Cotton. By the time that Burnett moved to Chicago to become a full-fledged Chess label artist in the mid-‘50s, he was an established name in the genre. He would continue to be a major player in the Blues, a not-so-friendly competition arising between Wolf and another Chicago bluesman, Muddy Waters.

Wolf’s late ‘50s/early ‘60s output is what sealed his legend as a great blues performer and can be attributed not only to Wolf’s own charismatic talents, but to the instrumental contributions of long-time collaborator Sumlin and the skilled hand of songwriter Willie Dixon. Recording a number of Dixon compositions, Howlin’ Wolf made them his own with inspired guitar playing and his magnificent trademark mouth harp work.  
    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog pulls together 42 wonderful Howlin’ Wolf performances, from the aforementioned early Memphis sides to the landmark Chicago Chess sessions, including several cuts from the late 1960s as well as alternates and a few unreleased songs. It is an excellent companion to the earlier released Chess box set, and well worth getting for fans for whom that set served as an introduction to this brilliant and complex artist. Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog, by covering almost twenty years of Howlin’ Wolf’s creative output, firms up any claims made for his considerable songwriting skills and instrumental talents. There is, perhaps, no better place for the music love to begin “rediscovering the blues” than here. (Chess Records/MCA Records)

Review originally published by R.A.D! music zine, 1994

Archive Review: Howlin’ Wolf’s Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited (2011)

In his prime, the mighty Howlin’ Wolf was a force of nature on stage, a cyclone of power and a tsunami of emotion on a level that few blues singers could aspire to, much less match. By the early 1970s, however, the great Wolf was getting old and sick, too many hard years resulting in various ailments that robbed the blues giant of some of his magic and vitality.
 
Gone, too, were the halcyon days of the blues, as black audiences had turned to soul and funk, and young white fans were moving towards the heavier-sounding blues bastardizations of Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, and others. Chess Records, Wolf’s long-time label, tried to modernize his unique brand of blues for the rock ‘n’ roll record buyer with albums like The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions, which paired the aging bluesman with much-younger British blues-rock acolytes like Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, and half the Rolling Stones, the attempt meeting with little success.

Howlin’ Wolf’s Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited

While Howlin’ Wolf would never experience the sort of late-career renaissance enjoyed by his friend and number one competitor Muddy Waters during the mid-‘70s, he could still display a measure of the electricity he once had when the spirit so moved him. Such a performance can be found on Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited, released in 1972 as the only live album released during Wolf’s lifetime. Chess and producer Ralph Bass unknowingly captured lightning in a bottle, providing Wolf with one last shot at immortality (he would release only one more studio album, 1973’s The Back Door Wolf, before his death in 1976).

Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited documents a January 1972 performance at a converted coffeehouse on the North side of Chicago called Alice’s Revisited. For the record, Wolf was backed by his longtime musical foils – guitarist Hubert Sumlin and pianist Sunnyland Slim – as well as legendary drummer Fred Below, second guitarist L.V. Williams, former Little Walter bassist Dave Myers, and Chicago blues institution, saxophonist Eddie Shaw. It’s a sad commentary on Wolf’s status at the time that a few days after this now-legendary gig, Wolf and the band were opening for Alice Cooper in Los Angeles…an odd and ill-fitting pairing if ever there was one.   

Mean Mistreater

The band romps through ten songs here, eight of which originally appeared on the 1972 and 1977 vinyl releases of the album, comprised of nine Wolf originals and a red-hot cover of Waters’ “Mean Mistreater.” Wolf opens with “When I Laid Down I Was Troubled,” his harmonica into leading into a full band vamp, the talented players laying down a fat blues groove that Wolf struts into with uncharacteristically subdued vocals. As the song unfolds, Wolf’s vocals become more strident, the instrumentation nearly burying his vocals in their trail as the groove rolls on. Scraps of Sumlin’s superb fretwork emerge from the chaotic mix, Below’s steady timekeeping accented by Myers’ walking bass line and Slim’s tinkling keys. Wolf’s manic harpwork fills in around the edges of a strong, highly-rocking performance.

The band is just warming up however, and after delivering a rhythmic Chicago blues-styled stomp in “I Didn’t Know,” complete with Sumlin’s scorching solos, Wolf and his gang hit their full stride with Waters’ “Mean Mistreater.” Peppering the band’s strolling rhythm with icy blasts from his harp, Wolf jumps in with his growling, whiskey-soaked vocals as Sumlin embellishes the performance with squalls of notes. Slim bangs away at his piano in the corner, but it’s Wolf’s swaying harp and heartbreak vocals that make the song soar.

Call Me The Wolf

Wolf is at full-stream by the time he belts out “I Had A Dream,” the singer masterfully welding soul and blues together in his performance as the band rocks the house behind their legendary singer. The rhythm section swings like a tornado, Sumlin throws in the hottest of licks, and Wolf proves himself an underrated harp player with an emotional, powerful solo of his own. His signature song, “Call Me the Wolf,” is a tortured cry from the soul of man, Wolf’s spoken-word intro evolving into a bluesy howl that speaks of betrayal, more of a primal scream at the heavens than a normal blues song.

Wolf’s take on the traditional “Sitting On Top of the World” is a slow-tempo bonfire that smolders and spits sparks, the band opening with shards of guitar playing against silky piano and the saxophone’s emotional howl. Wolf’s vocals are a Delta drawl that perfectly captures the song’s duality of emotions felt and those expressed. Two “bonus tracks” from the same live set and left off the original LP, are stellar performances both – “The Big House” is an extended blues jam with Wolf’s roaring vocals measured throughout, while “Mr. Airplane Man” is a riffing, rocking black cat moan, the band’s malevolent rhythms perfected in sync with Wolf’s growled, howled, and biting vocals.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

As the old maxim goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and by 1972 it was evident to anybody listening to releases like This Is Howlin’ Wolf’s New Album or Message To the Young that the blues great simply wasn’t ready or willing to move beyond his comfort zone. Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited, a long-overdue live album from the Wolf, captured the legend doing exactly what he did best – tearing up the stage with a setlist of familiar blues gems that provide a perfect showcase for the Wolf’s blues intensity.   

It’s a bit of a travesty that Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited has remained out of print for almost 20 years, much less that it’s taken an Australian label – reissue specialists Raven Records – to bring this essential piece of Howlin’ Wolf’s legacy back into focus. My advice is that if you’re a Howlin’ Wolf fan, or a fan of Chicago blues overall, grab a copy of Live and Cookin’ At Alice’s Revisited while the album is in print and available. Wolf’s performance is priceless, the band one of the best in the blues at the time. ‘Nuff said! (Raven Records, released February 8, 2011)

Archive Review: NoFX’s Never Trust A Hippy EP (2006)

One of the few true legendary bands in punk rock, NoFX continues to raise the lyrical bar for the genre. Although Fat Mike and his crew have always dabbled a bit in socially-conscious wordplay, the band and its primary songwriter have become much more direct and decidedly caustic as American spirals down the toilet of institutionalized Conservatism. With the six-song EP Never Trust A Hippy, NoFX attacks right-wing Christianity with a blunt force trauma that few artists have been willing to use in their art. Christ, if Pat Robertson ever hears these songs, there’ll be literal hell to pay, hit squads of Bible-toting, cross-bearing Conservative Christians shadowing the band from town to town and club to club.

NoFX’s Never Trust A Hippy

Yeah, Never Trust A Hippy is that damn good…at least if you’re a punk-rock-lovin’, anarcho-leftist dupe like the Reverend. The “Hippy” in question is the big enchilada himself, JC, and what organized religion has done to the guy’s once-hallowed reputation. “I’m Going To Hell For This One” is the climax of the EP, a portrait of Christ as a “regular Joe” wanting his share of the take, a party to go to and maybe a little of the sins of the flesh. Beneath the song’s comic exterior, however, Fat Mike hits upon a vital truth – much of today’s religious fervor is built not upon the love preached by the big cheese in the sky but rather on fear. Fear of gay marriage, fear of sex, fear of hell, etc…there’s not much that’s positive and life-affirming about Conservative Christianity.

Much of the rest of Never Trust A Hippy also displays NoFX’s trademark tongue-in-cheek humor, Fat Mike ripping off clever and wickedly funny lines with shameless glee. “You’re Wrong” remakes Too Much Joy’s classic “You Will,” which in itself was a satirical rip-off of a TV commercial, the NoFX tune name-checking such right-wing icons as Sean Hannity, the NRA, and Ann Coulter while also blasting Islamic Jihad, the FBI’s Cointelpro program and mindless nationalism. “The Marxist Brothers” mixes Groucho with Karl in its dissection of manufactured dissent while the Dickies-by-way-of-the-Germs “Golden Boys” is covered here with blistering fury, the song questioning killing in the name of religion.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

As they’ve done in the past, Never Trust A Hippy offers an advance look at the band’s upcoming Wolves In Wolves’ Clothing album, featuring two songs from the new disc. The EP stands tall on its own however, NoFX mixing Fat Mike’s incendiary lyricism with the band’s typical guitar-driven punk rock fury. Although Never Trust A Hippy only whets the appetite for the full-length album to come, you know it’s going to be a great summer when Fat Mike and the boys come back to town! (Fat Wreck Chords)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2006

Archive Review: Dave Navarro's Trust No One (2001)

As guitarist for two of the seminal alt-rock bands to break out of the crowded eighties music scene in Los Angeles, Dave Navarro’s reputation precedes him. Along with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, Navarro helped to shape and define the look and sound of Lollapalooza-styled alternative rock. His blistering six-string style and exotic flourishes earned Navarro a following of his own as well as status as a guitar hero for the new millennia.

What Navarro’s legion of fans may not be prepared for is the guitarist’s solo debut, Trust No One, which sounds little like his efforts with those two well-known bands. Sure, you’ll find a soupcon of Jane in songs like “Sunny Day” or the stunningly muscular “Everything.” For the most part, however, Navarro blazes his own trail with Trust No One. “Not For Nothing” is a rampaging beast with a scalding recurring riff that teeters on the edge of madness while “Venus In Furs” draws a veil of sound around Navarro’s ethereal vocals.

The album-closing “Slow Motion Sickness” is an epic composition with looping guitars and a haunting ambience. The lyrics on Trust No One range from introspective to the surreal and Navarro’s vocals are surprisingly supple and effective. It’s the artist’s astonishing six-string work that listeners should tune in for, though, Navarro following lightning-fast riffs with delicate acoustic melodies, mixing standard hard rock style with disparate influences drawn from the blues, acoustic folk, and Middle Eastern raga.

Fans of Navarro’s earlier work owe it to themselves to check out his solo vision. Trust No One is a guitar lover’s dream come true, a solid solo effort from one of rock’s finest six-string wizards. (Capitol Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine

Book Review: Cary Baker’s Down On the Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music (2024)

‘Busking’ is defined as “the act or practice of entertaining by dancing, singing, juggling, etc., on the street or in a public place,” which is a fairly comprehensive list of…you know…the kind of stuff that buskers actually do for the few coins tossed their way by passersby. Although they’re usually found in high-traffic urban centers, it’s not unusual for buskers to show up in even the smallest of burgs.

Our rural WNY town boasts of a population of >16k but we have a guy that dresses up in black leather and death metal face paint and rips off chords on an electric guitar and portable amp while standing by the side of Main Street. When the mood hits him, he migrates down the road to the smaller (8k) village of Brockport, setting up shop in front of the Vinyl Record Revival store where he can perform for college kids from SUNY. Truth is, busking is a time-honored tradition that has been around almost as long as humans began smashing two rocks together in rhythm.     

Cary Baker’s Down On the Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music

With his first book, Down On the Corner: Adventures In Busking & Street Music, writer Cary Baker takes a fairly comprehensive look at the busking tradition. I say “fairly” comprehensive because Baker hints at a second volume (yes, please!), but even if that never comes to fruition, Down On the Corner provides a deep look at many talents behind the tradition. Baker is a music biz lifer, formerly one of the best publicists in the industry for a number of record labels, including I.R.S. and Capitol Records as well as his own hard-working firm, Conqueroo, working with talents like Bonnie Raitt, Bobby Rush, Willie Nile, and R.E.M. Before all that, however, Baker wrote about music for publications like the Chicago Reader, Creem, and Trouser Press.

I’ve known Cary since we were both in high school and contributing to the regional hippie rag Sunrise, where we were mentored by rockcrit legend Rick Johnson. As a writer, I worked with him for decades (sometimes to his aggravation) in his role as publicist and can vouch for his knowledge of musical matters (many of which he had a hand in). Although many of us thought that he’d pen his first book about his years in the biz, it’s not really surprising that he chose busking as the subject of his first tome – Baker has been enchanted by street musicians since he was a teen, seeing bluesman Blind Arvella Gray perform at the market on Maxwell Street in his Chicago hometown. Appropriately, Down On the Corner kicks off on that long gone section of the Windy City before traveling around the world.

Blind Arvella Gray

 

The stories told by Down On the Corner are as enchanting as they are insightful, covering a wide range of bluesmen-and-women, folkies, country artists, and one-man bands in environs like NYC, New Orleans, London, Los Angeles, and Nashville. Although some of the names are familiar – Billy Bragg’s pre-fame busking years are an integral part of his story, and artists like Ted Hawkins, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Moondog, and Wild Man Fischer are well-known to even a few casual music fans as rising from the street to the suites as they hammered out careers of one sort or another on major and minor record labels. However, I was surprised to see talents like Americana legend Lucinda Williams, 1980s-era college rock faves Violent Femmes, folk-rocker (and former power-popper) Peter Case, ‘90s-era alt-rocker Mary Lou Lord, and bluesman Fantastic Negrito as having launched their careers on the streets.

Down On the Corner also introduces the reader to regional artists that are definitely more obscure or never got a proper shot at the brass ring, folks like Oliver Smith, Nashville’s Cortelia Clark, George ‘Bongo Joe’ Coleman, and the duo of Satan & Adam, every one worthy of further research on Discogs. Most of the artists relate their story in their own words, which can make for a lively conversation – I particularly liked reading about the social activism of the duo of David & Roselyn, or Mary Lou Lord’s adventures in the subways of NYC. Baker does an admirable job of capturing that ‘something special’ about each performer, and has delivered an overall well-written and well-researched…although never dull…book on busking that digs into the lives of the buskers as well as the tradition.           

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Down On the Corner is a quick read, with each chapter sort of open-ended and dependent on the reader to do their own research by checking out the featured artists’ music, some of which you can find on YouTube and most of which can be dug up on vinyl and CD. Aside from the artists, Baker also includes the localized busking scenes of places like Chicago, New Orleans, and Venice Beach, California, which provides an invaluable backdrop to the artists’ stories. The book includes a 16-page insert of vintage color and B&W photos of people and places that also help add to the book’s historical import. Down On the Corner is mighty impressive first effort from Mr. Baker, and doubly so as it shines a light on a seldom-addressed but nevertheless rich niche of music history. (Jawbone Press U.K., published November 12th, 2024)

Buy the book from Amazon: Cary Baker’s Down On the Corner

Archive Review: Various Artists - The South Side of Soul Street (2013)

Collectors of Southern soul are a dedicated bunch of crate-diggers, and we have them to thank for the re-discovery and reissuing of a lot of long-gone, all-but-lost soul classics. A lot of Memphis and Muscle Shoals sides have been rescued for the digital era because of their efforts, and not just those recordings released by Stax Records, but a wealth of small-label craziness that would have slipped into obscurity if not for the fanaticism of collectors hoarding old sides from Excello, A-Bet, Dial, and other small independent labels.

Witness the legacy of Minaret Records, a small R&B imprint from Valparaiso, Florida that was re-purposed by producer Finley Duncan as a logical outgrowth of his Playground Recording Studio. Originally a country-leaning label in the early 1960s, by the end of the decade Duncan had moved the label into blues and R&B with Nashville partner Shelby Singleton. Although Minaret never scored any major chart hits during the label’s short existence as a soul imprint, they could boast of a roster of classic soul, blues, and R&B talents that would have done any other label proud.

The South Side of Soul Street

The South Side of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976 is a two-disc, 40-song collection that offers all of the A and B-sides from the Minaret catalog for the first time, most of these songs out-of-print for decades and fetching premium prices. Listening to The South Side of Soul Street is a revelation, one great song after another cascading from your speakers like honey dripping from a hive. Singer Big John Hamilton was the anchor of the Minaret roster, and he’s represented here by a whopping 20 songs, performances like the grand, heartbreaking “I Have No One” or the Memphis-styled groove of “Pretty Girls” presents the head-scratching question of why Hamilton didn’t become a big league star. His debuts with singer Doris Allen are of a similar high quality as his solo cuts, “A Place In My Heart” especially effective, the contrasting male and female voices bolstering the emotional impact of the lyrics.

Minaret was about more than just Big John Hamilton, though, and artists like Genie Brooks – whose funky-fresh “Fine Time” positions him as the label’s Wilson Pickett – along with Johnny Dynamite and Gable Reed all possessed a certain star quality. Dynamite’s “The Night the Angels Cried” is a hard-driving R&B tearjerker with great soul vocals and bleats of horn while Reed’s “I’m Your Man” is a emotional plea for amour delivered in the best Otis Redding style, wiry guitar licks filling in between tears. Brooks’ “South Side of Soul Street,” from which the set takes its name, is bold, brassy, and swings like a blacksmith’s hammer, the song a perfect funk-drenched snapshot of Southern soul circa 1969.

Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976

Willie Cobbs is best-known as a blues shouter, but the lone single he made for Minaret, “I’ll Love Only You,” is a mighty powerful R&B bonfire, with some fine Steve Cropper-styled git-pickin. The single’s “B” side, “Don’t Worry About Me,” is equally entertaining, with bluesy harp loping alongside Cobbs’ smoky vocals and shots of horn. Doris Allen should definitely been a bigger star, her larger than life voice and undeniable charisma pumping up standard R&B tracks like “A Shell of A Woman” and “Kiss Yourself For Me” with the intensity of an Etta James.

Leroy Lloyd and the Dukes are obviously rockers at heart, their instrumental “Sewanee Strut” bouncing off the walls with bluesy horns, machine-gun drumbeats, and an infectious rhythm. By contrast, Lloyd’s instrumental “A Taste of the Blues” is a slow-burner, smoldering piano accompanied by lively hornplay and smart fretwork by Lloyd that reminds of Freddie King. Willie Gable’s “Row, Row, Row” is the single outlier here, a sort of lusty talking-blues styled R&B tune based on nursery rhyme melodies and lyrics that is just flat-out weird. The singer’s “Eternally” plays much better, Gable traipsing across familiar soul turf with a torch-song ballad that places his wavering voice in a better light.
 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Like most of the Southern soul labels at the time, Duncan used a house band of talented, albeit largely unknown players like guitarists Larry Shell and John Rainey Adkins, as well as guest musicians like the Memphis Horns and Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham who all struck sparks in the recording studio when playing behind these great singers.

The South Side of Soul Street includes a nice booklet with a few rare photos and extensive liner notes from music historian Bill Dahl, a guy that knows his stuff and, more importantly, loves the music as deeply as any crate-digger. It’s the music that does the talking on The South Side of Soul Street, though, the album a phenomenal tribute to the unsung artists that created these great performances. If you’re a fan of 1960s-era soul music – and who isn’t – and you haven’t heard The South Side of Soul Street, what the heck are you waiting for? (Omnivore Records, released August 13th, 2013)

Planet of Sound 3: Even More Essays From the Rock and Roll Globe Era, 2021-2024

Planet of Sound 3 is the third and final archival collection of rants, raves, and reviews penned by award-winning rock critic and music historian Rev. Keith A. Gordon. The Reverend covers a diverse range of popular music with these 46 essays, from well-known artists like Frank Zappa, Neil Young, and rapper Ice T to cult favorites like Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, rocker Joe Grushecky, and punk godfather Johnny Thunders. 

Planet of Sound 3 expands the series' coverage of live albums, with in-depth reviews of legit and bootleg releases from rock 'n' roll greats like The Yardbirds, Rory Gallagher, and Michael Bloomfield. You'll find reviews of punk-rock (Hüsker Dü, Dead Kennedys), garage-rock (The Unclaimed, The Vipers), and the blues (John Lee Hooker, Skip James) as well as book reviews and tributes to artists like Keith Richards, John Mayall, and Spirit. 

The “Reverend of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Rev. Keith A. Gordon has been writing about classic rock and blues music over 50 years. A former contributor to the All Music Guide books and website, and the former ‘Blues Expert’ for About.com, Gordon has written for over 100 publications worldwide, including Creem, Blurt magazine, Goldmine, Blues Music magazine, High Times, The Blues (U.K.), and Live! Music Review. The Reverend has also written or edited 29 previous music-related books, including Nuggets Redux, The Jimi Hendrix Reader, and Sonicbond Publishing's Spirit...On Track! 

 Get an autographed copy from the Reverend for $19.99 postpaid! (U.S. orders only)

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Archive Review: Neil Zaza's Staring At the Sun (2001)

Personally, I don’t think that Cleveland, Ohio really deserves to be the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That institution should have been located in Memphis, home of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dewey Phillips, Sun Studios, and Stax Records. However, I will give the city its due praise – its football fans are diehard loyalists, WMMS is a decent radio station, and there’s something in the water from Lake Erie that spawns rock bands. Maybe it’s radioactivity in the lake or smoke from the flames burning frequently on the Cuyahoga River but Cleveland has churned out musical mutants like Stiv Bators and Cheetah Chrome, the James Gang, Pere Ubu, and the Michael Stanley Band for decades now. Now you can add Neil Zaza to the lengthy list of musical treasures unearthed from the “mistake on the lake.”

Playing in the same major leagues as Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, Neil Zaza pursues a similar guitar style, his notes ringing with crystal tone and cheetah-fast riffs raging with flaming clarity. For his sophomore album, Staring At the Sun – engineered with some skill by Zaza himself – the Cleveland axeman enlisted the help of the Journey rhythm section, bassist Ross Valory, and drummer Steve Smith. The resulting songs are thick and juicy on the bottom end, the Valory/Ross axis straining their instrumental muscles to keep up with the youngster Zaza. The six-string work on Staring At the Sun is mean and lean, however, Zaza ripping off notes with surgical precision.

Unlike many guitar heroes who merely want to dazzle an audience with explosive speed and pyrotechnics, Zaza incorporates melody and song structure along with the dazzling fireworks. “The Wonder of You” offers some tasteful riffs beneath an engaging melody while “New, New Math” features a powerful rhythmic heartbeat pounding behind Zaza’s blazing fretwork. Falling water and thunderclaps open “Rain,” a gentle, brilliant song that showcases Zaza’s complex style and natural virtuosity, the band assisted on the track by Satriani bassist Stuart Hamm. The album closes with an inspired reading of “Purple Rain,” Zaza displaying his guitar prowess in redefining this signature Prince classic

There are no vocals on Staring At the Sun, just some found sounds and Zaza’s astonishing guitar playing. That’s really all you need, however, Neil Zaza earning a name for himself as one of rock guitar’s elite talents with Staring At the Sun. (Neurra Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine