SAMMY HAGAR – Sammy Hagar & Friends – CD review

SAMMY HAGAR
Sammy Hagar & Friends
Frontiers Records

It’s now 40 years since Sammy Hagar released a truly great album. And that was his, and Montrose’s, debut album. Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s an excellent singer and a good guitarist, and he’s recorded some cracking tunes over the years, but his albums have drifted between competent and good. Now I know he made his millions with Van Halen (and tequila), but I don’t think anyone could claim that anything he has recorded stands out as a truly classic album. And this doesn’t change things in any way.

I first saw Sammy Hagar live way back in about 1980 when he toured the UK. I had a blast, and some of his songs are still hanging around on my iPod all these years later. A quick scan shows up ‘I’ve Done Everything for You’, ‘There’s Only One Way to Rock’, ‘Cruisin’ & Boozin’, but it finds three times as many Montrose songs, with nary a Van Halen one in sight.

Five years on from his last solo record, and with 2 Top 10 US albums under his belt with Chickenfoot, you’d have hoped that this all star album would have upped the ante a bit. But it confirms what I’ve long thought. And that is that Sammy Hagar was a bar band singer who got lucky. There are only ten songs on offer, and only four of them have a Hagar writing credit, which doesn’t say much for his creative muse. So what do you get?

There’s ‘Knockdown Dragout’ with Kid Rock, ‘Bad On Fords and Chevrolets’ with country singer Ronnie Dunn, ‘All We Need Is An Island’, a rather sweet duet with Nancy Wilson from Heart, a cover of ‘Going Down’ with his former Montrose cohorts Bill Church and Denny Carmassi, ‘Father Sun’, a duet with his son Aaron, a pedestrian take on Bob Seger’s, ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man’ and a dreadful version of Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’, with Neal Schon from Journey, as well as Chickenfoot companions Michael Anthony and Chad Smith. There is also a cover of ‘Margaritaville’ with Toby Keith, and if ever a song should have been shot at birth, then its that one.

I’ve only got the vanilla version, so can’t comment on the CD/DVD Deluxe Version which has an audio bonus track (‘Space Station #5’ (Live at the Ronnie Montrose Tribute Concert) and a DVD featuring a making of album documentary along with a videoclip of first single, ‘Knockdown Dragout’.

Now I’m sure Hagar is a fun guy, and that everyone had a great time making this, but it’s yet another album that reminds you of what could have been.

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