20/20 by The Walk-About

The Walk-About is an Aussie/American, acoustically driven, rock-n-roll quartet hailing from the artistic east end of Long Island, New York consisting of Darren “Sully” Sullivan on vocals, didgeridoo, and harmonica, Kevin Anderson on Acoustic Guitars, Drew Bertrand on drums, Keenan Zach on bass and Dave Christian on electric guitar and vocals.  Their June 5, 2020 album called 20/20 is a multi-genre romp through musical styles such as funk, rock, world, Latin, and much more with such tracks as Timeless, Get Me To The Station, Hero, Trash Talkin’ and much more.  This album showcases a great performance as well as excellent songwriting and a superb recording and will be available June 5^th on Vinyl, CD, and digital download via Bandcamp, their official website https://www.walkaboutband.com/ and other retail outlets.

Live From The Wildey Theatre by Nektar

Nektar’s album Live From The Wildey  Theatre was filmed on March 7, 2020, on their Up Close And Intimate Tour of North America.  This show performed in Edwardsville, Illinois focuses on new and classic Nektar tracks spanning their 50 Year career as a band.  The psychedelic progressive rock band Nektar comprises of Randy Dembo on bass, 1 string guitar, bass pedals and vocals, Kendall Scott on keyboards and vocals, Ryche Chlanda on guitar and vocals, Ron Howden on drums, and Derek “Mo” Moore on bass.  This fourteen track album features such greats songs as The Light Beyond, The Devil’s Door, Love Is The Other Side, It’s All Over, I’m On Fire and so much more.  I first listened to the audio tracks which I enjoyed tremendously before watching the video of the concert.  Both the audio and video were well performed and recorded in addition to excellent songwriting. I hope one day I will get the opportunity to this band live if they play in my area.  You can purchase this album from the band’s official website https://nektarsmusic.com/ where you can also learn about this band, their music, and more.

Stories To Live Up To by Harvey Dalton Arnold

Stories To Live Up To is the February 28, 2020 release by former Outlaws bassist Harvey Dalton Arnold on the Music Makers Recordings label.  Among the musicians who contributed to the project are drummer Charley Drayton, who has played with Keith Richards‘ solo group X-pensive Winos and Divinyls; keyboardist Rob Arthur, a current member of the Peter Frampton Band; and veteran session bassist Zev Katz.  This nine-track album is a bunch of songs that he had written with the intent of kind of painting a picture or telling a story with such songs as What’s On Your Mind, Poor Boy, Lone Outlaw, Gotta See Ya and a whole lot more.  I was quite moved by the performance on this album as well as his songwriting talent and a superb recording which has a different sound that you normally find in a recording studio.  It almost had a live sound.  This definitely an album you will want to check out.  Stories to Live Up To can be purchased on CD at MusicMaker.org, and also is available as a digital download and via streaming services such as Amazon, Itunes, and many others.

What Would Dolly Do by Tori Martin

What Would Dolly Do is the February 28, 2020 single by Azle, Texas native, and Season 14 American Idol contestant Tori Martin on the Old Soule Entertainment Records label.  This country singer/songwriter has already had several hits on Texas country radio and now it is time for this artist to hit it big on the national charts.  She has an amazing voice that is clean and fresh and does a major justice to this song with a superb recording.  Tori has great musicians backing her up on this song and she has a talent that I am looking forward to hearing a lot more from.  This song is available from Amazon, Apple Music, and many other music retailers and you can find more about this incredible artist, her music and tour schedule once the coronavirus situation is over by going to her official website https://www.thetorimartin.com/

Garage Nuggets ’65-’68 and Songs About Girls by The Limits

Memphis rock icon Alex Chilton of Big Star & The Box Tops called The Limits “the quintessential American Garage band who brought back two albums showing their earlier days as The Limits.  The collection Garage Nuggets ’65-’68 is a compilation of the early Limits recordings – live, in the studio, in rehearsal – capturing the band’s first attempts at songwriting while the collection Songs About Girls captures their later incarnation from 1979-1988.  Both collections have been reissued on all digital music platforms courtesy of a licensing arrangement with Garage Masters, a division of Cleopatra Records, Inc.  This band featuring Beau Jones on bass and vocals, Rick Levy on guitar and vocals, Rook Jones on lead vocals and guitar, Jack Schaeffer on drums, and Chris Jones on guitar brings such tracks on their earlier album Garage Nuggets ’65-’68 such tracks as Susie Q (which was made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival), Hitch Hike, Little Red Rooster, Respect, Let Me Be, The Box Tops and Joe Cocker’s hit The Letter and many more.  Songs About Girls features such tracks as Just Another Girl, Come To Me, Trip To My Head, I Won’t Tell, and much more.   These two albums brought me back to growing up in the ’60s with great vocals and harmonies and instrumental backup.  The recordings sounded as it was recorded originally with great songwriting and performance.

Sketches From My Blue Heaven Studio Volume One by Troy Castellano

Sketches From My Blue Heaven Studio Volume One is the first of two EP series by Troy Castellano, a songwriter and music producer based out of Nashville Tennessee which was released on November 9, 2017, on his own label.  This six-track EP of country originals features the tracks Days Like These, Quitter, Girl Like That, Back To Good, One Day At A Time, and State I’m In which was recorded in his My Blue Heaven Studio in his home.  I was impressed with his voice and his songwriting talent as well as great performance and superb recording.  This is an artist I would love to hear on country radio and also hoping to hear more from this artist.  This EP is available on CD and digital download from Amazon, Apple Music, and many other music retailers as well as on his official website http://www.troycastellano.com/ where you can learn more about this artist, his music and much more.

A Simple Plan by Gallagher-Ford-Thompson

For my third review this morning, I am bringing you the October 11, 2019 album by Gallagher-Ford-Thompson called A Simple Plan.  This trio features Brian Gallagher on vocals, bass, and acoustic guitars, Keith Ford on electric guitars, keyboards and vocals, and Nick Thompson on Drums and percussion.  This eleven-track album is a  tasty recipe of folk, rock, blues, and country soul all served up with a uniquely provocative and definitively proud Canadian sound.  Listening to this album, I was quite moved by the performance on this album with amazing vocals and great instrumental backup on such tracks as the title track A Simple Plan, I Wish You Well, Paper Church, In The City, Her and much more.  In addition to the great performance I mentioned earlier, I was quite impressed with their songwriting talent and a superb recording.  This is an album that I would highly recommend you take a listen to. This album is available from Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, Google Music, and many other music retailers.  I am looking forward to hearing more from this great band.  To learn more about this band, go to their official Bandcamp page https://gallagherofficial.bandcamp.com/

Blues Comin’ On by Joe Louis Walker

Soulful blues phenom and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Joe Louis Walker is joined by a host of talented friends and peers on his superb new studio album, Blues Comin’ On, set to be released on June 5, 2020, on the Cleopatra Blues Records label.  The album features guest performances by fellow blues icons Keb’ Mo’, Eric Gales, and Albert Lee, plus Detroit soul singer Mitch Ryder, harmonica virtuoso Lee Oskar, Hot Tuna’s Jorma Kaukonen, punk rock vocalist Charlie Harper, legendary session player Waddy Wachtel, and so many more!  When I started listening to this twelve track album I was hooked with the first song Feed The Poor, continuing with such tracks as the title track Blues Comin’ On, Someday Someway which has that classic R&B sound that I totally love, moving on to other tracks such as The Thang, Old Time Used To Be, Awake Me Shake Me, Seven More Steps and so much more.  I was quite moved by this performance with its amazing vocals and superb guitar work, as well as the songwriting talent and a superb recording.  This is an album I would love to own on vinyl.  This album will be available on June 5^th on Vinyl. CD, and digital download from Cleopatra Records and many other music outlets.  To learn more about this amazing artist, his music and more, go to his official website https://www.joelouiswalker.com/

Time by Ante Up

For my 1681^st review, I am proud to present the album Time, a November 15, 2019 release on the Upstate Records label by the metallic hardcore band Ante Up.  This band consists of Critter on vocals, John on bass, Matt and Rich on guitars, and Justin on drums.  This seven-track album features unclean vocals, Heavy guitar work, thumping bass lines, and driving drum beats.  Your head would be banging on such tracks as the title track Time, Interlude, Disgust, and much more.  This album was well written, performed, and recorded and is a great album for all you metalheads out there.  You can get your own copy of this album from Upstate Records, Bandcamp, and many other music retailers on Vinyl, CD, and digital download.  To find out more about this band and more go to their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Anteup456/

No Medicine Like The Blues by Buck69

No Medicine Like The Blues is a November 18, 2013 album by Toledo, Ohio blues-rock band Buck69 which features Tom Clawson on vocals and guitar, Alex Clawson on rhythm and lead guitar, Candice Coleman (who was a Season Two American Idol contestant in 2003) on vocals, Randy Paredes on lead & slide guitar, B.J. Love on keyboards, David Alan on drums and vocals, and John Sevilla on bass, lead guitar, and vocals.  This band is described as being like Kenny Wayne Sheppard meeting Jonny Lang in a Juke Joint to talk about Eric Clapton on this sixteen song album which features such tracks as Ugly Teacher Blues, Dead End Road, the title track No Medicine Like The Blues, That’ Life, Tell Me Why, My Car and so much more.   I enjoyed this amazing album from start to finish and was quite moved by this band’s performance and how well this album was written and recorded and produced.  This is definitely an album you will want to add to your blues library and is available on CD and digital download format from Amazon, Discogs, and many other music retailers.  To learn more about his band go to their official website https://www.buck69.net/