Reviews roundup – Jimmy Davis vs. Graham Dee vs. The SixxiS vs. Count To Fire

Reviews roundup – Jimmy Davis vs. Graham Dee vs. The SixxiS vs. Count To Fire

JIMMY DAVIS
Existence Is The Sound Of Love
Head Nodders International

Well now. We’re kicking things off today with some hippity-hop. Yes, you read that right. Hippity-hop. On these here pages. It’s a strange old world, what with me being poor Scotch white trash. But there was a time when the hip and the hop had some purpose. I’m thinking back to the days when bands like The Brotherhood tried to define British rap. And Jimmy Davis is in that mould. Not as good, mind, but he’s trying.

He’s not writing about bitches and hos, but what it’s like to grow up in Birmingham, poor and without hope. For sure, it’s not all to my taste, but he is certainly passionate about what he believes in, and through tunes like ‘This Is England’ and ‘Brumsdale’, he certainly makes his mark.

He has tried to broaden his sound, with some melodic arrangements and female backing vocals, and the black humour running through some of the lyrics is very welcome. It’s a million miles away from the filth that pervades the US hip hop world, and is certainly worth a listen. You can buy it at Amazon, or head over to his website to have a listen – http://www.jimmydavisdavis.com/

GRAHAM DEE
The Thirteenth Man
Tin-Kan

Hello? How did that happen? Seventy one year old Mr Dee has written and produced for the likes of Sharon Tandy, the Fleur De Lys and the Applejacks. He’s played live with Steve Marriott, The Walker Brothers and Them, and took the place of Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd back in 1967 when Syd Barrett flaked out. He was an in -house producer at Polydor/Atlantic Records, before taking on session work in the USA and writing with Philip Mitchell at the renowned Muscles Shoals Studios in Alabama. Then he packed it in and went off to work in forestry.

Fast forward forty years, and post the 2011 Acid Jazz compilation, “The Graham Dee Connection”, he’s only gone and released a solo album. And it’s bloody good. It’s very laid back, mis-seventies, mellow vibe, but then he’s no Lemmy, so that’s not surprising. But the quality of the songs is. It’s funky, late night music, with some smooth mid-tempo grooves.

I can’t fault songs like ‘My Philosophy’, ‘Distracted’ and ‘Cheating on Love’, which are pure class. The arrangements and the backing never misses a beat, and it places it’s sumptuous. He may look like Paul Wellers Dad / Joe Browns bruvver on the cover, but don’t let that put you off, because this is a record not to miss.

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THE SIXXIS
same
WBA Music

Sadly, not a Nikki Sixx tribute band. Nope, The SixxiS (their capitalisation) are a rather good, post grunge band, who seem awfully keen on letting you know what college they went to. Regardless, they’re making a bit of a name for themselves after tours with Wishbone Ash and The Winery Dogs, and this record shows why.

See, they’ve gone the King’s X route, rather than the Alice In Chains way, which means they have a melodic prog edge to their music, which lifts it out the grunge dirt. Even their musical lineup shows which way they lean, with Vladdy Iskhakov (lead vocals, violin, piano, and rhythm guitar), Mark Golden (bass guitar, synth), and Josh “JBake” Baker (drums, percussion, pads, vocals) along with multi-instrumentalists Paul Sorah and Cameron Allen.

So there is a lot of musical action going on in there, and when they hit the bullseye on songs like ‘I Wanted More’ and ‘Believe’, you can hear the doors to American radio creaking open to welcome them in. A couple of songs don’t really work, but if you’re looking for the next breakout ‘rock’ band, then this could be them.

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COUNT TO FIRE
On Your Side
Neo

Album number three from the Devonian country band. Now I haven’t heard the first two, but this is rather nice. It’s more Americana than out and out country, so it’s Gram Parsons based rather than Hank Williams, but it’s not a bad place to be, and folk who’re keen on Wilco and their ilk, will find themselves very much at home here.

The songs from singer and guitarist Will Odgers seem more folkie to me, but once you bang in some twang, courtesy of the pedal steel and violin, it’s well countrified. Some of the songs meander along, but there are a couple of moments where things really take. So you might want to try ‘Make It Work’ and ‘Every Minute’ are far and away the best tunes, and definitely worth a spin.

In places, they stretch a song out a little too far, but that’s not to take away from a sometimes invigorating album.

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