The old year has ended with really big culmination of musical goods gained to extend the knowledge and enjoy the new sounds. I guess that among the chosen stuff the last undiscovered Snowy White's album has received the biggesdt number of spins so far. It's not exactly because "That Certain Thing" is so extraordinary musically. The 1987 album is culled out and produced in somewhat pop glaze manner, where hints of plastic, synthy instrumentation with female choruses tend to try to appeal chart oriented listener. That's the disgusting news. On the other hand it proves that Snowy was always capable of coming with the good melodies encrafted with the blues rooted, tasteful and extremly melodic guitar playing, that reminds me of the Dire Straits style and hook. That clearly saves the day for this music format - somewhat specific to these years - that the record is shaped in. Kind of schizophrenic approach to hate and love the same music at the same time, but that's how it worked on me.
Now, we're much into the new year already. After the sheer craziness of the end of the 2009, where the gigs-of-the-interest schedule was simply outpouring with the events, the start of 2010 looks almost dead silent. Nothing really fancy, apart from the gigs of the truly excellent The Australian Pink Floyd Show gigs twice in the end of the January. It will be interesting and pretty exciting to attend two of the four Polish shows. As usual for the classic rock fan - I'm pretty much curious how the particular nights will differ one from each other. I hope they will! In the press releases of the TAPFS one can always read that they play Pink Floyd classics note for note. It's a shite statement, from what I've seen so far. The soloists play their asses off in every song taking chances to play in the right manner, using the same sound and equipment - still they play their own stuff. Good for them. I always stood on the position that if you want to solo fluently - you have to do your own stuff - even in the frame of the classic material. It's for the truly exeptional musican to achieve the balance. The Aussies are more than capable of doing this - so I'm more than thrilled with the option of seeing them twice in two weeks time.
While the live gig interest dogs lie sleeping - I can accomodate the finances to a possible cumulation later in the year. What remains now is to look out for the new releases planned for the period, in the area of our intersts. So far two neat chunks of new creations are announced.
First is evidently making the heart warm. "To Notice Such Things" is the new project of Jon Lord. Much of it's detailed description and discussion is featured on the Artist's site (http://jonlord.org). Sounds promising to those who are familiar with "Durham Concerto" and "Boom Of The Tingling Strings". As happy as I am with any new addition to his works catalogue, I still can't stop thinking about the long-gone promised blues / rock type record that is due to happen for years. Still the only teardryer for this ache are the albums of The Hoochie Coochie Men featuring extensive collaboration with the Maestro. More thoughts on Lord's new album will come as soon as I get my hands down on it!
The other big creampie announced for the midyear is the debut of another Black-is-my-name nicked group. Black Country consists of Derek Sherinan - kbd, Jason Bonham - dr. (and possibly backing vocals as his skills in the department are available!), Joe Bonamassa - gtr. and our very own Glenn Hughes - b., voc. The gentlemen themselves seem to be very excited by the propspect of creating new material together as is their producer Kevin Shirley. Press reports tend to overbust a bit the excitement about the project, but the level of creativity of Bonamassa and Hughes in last years can actually promise something groovy. In genre, stretched between the blues roots of Joe and Led Purple conotations of Jason and Glenn it might be really exciting portion of classic rock, if only the Messers will rely on the groove, melody and the space to improvise. While Joe doesn't stop his succesful drive on the road to glory and international acclaim and recognition (the new "Black Rock" album is about to hit the shops in the spring), Glenn probably abandons the work on his very own new solo album. If not - we'll get the double service as it was five years ago when the Iommi co-penned "Fused" and solo effort "Soul Mover" hit the market in one year, much to a enthusiastic response of the listeners.
A good start as for January!
