Reviews roundup – Sasha McVeigh vs. Ady Johnson vs. King King vs. Buddy Rich vs. Paul McCartney
SASHA McVEIGH
I Stand Alone
independent
We’re kicking things off with some British country music. Yes, really. Long gone are the days when my auld Irish mammy would drag me off to the Phoenix Country Music Club in the Berry Suite to listen to second rate covers of Porter Wagoner songs. No, it’s done proper these days, and young Sasha McVeigh is the latest to try her hand.
And she’s done it in an admirably adventurous way, heading off to Nashville in 2012, playing at the likes of Tootsies Orchid Lounge and The Bluebird. She put out an EP back in 2013 and has since undertaken a couple of US tours and recorded her debut album. In fact, she’s even been signed up by the William Morris Endeavour Entertainment (WME), the biggest booking agency in the world. So there.
And she is good. This album is coming out off the back of her performance at the C2C Festival at The O2 in London, which will have raised her profile over here, and if modern country is your thing, then there is a lot to enjoy here. For sure, there are some folky bits and some poppy bits, but it steers well clear of Taylor Swift territory and songs like ‘Someone To Break My Heart’ and ‘Hot Mess’ are well deserving of being on any country playlist. Including my own Rockin’ The Country show on http://www.getreadytorockradio.com/
I still think she’ll need to be over there, rather than over here, but Ms McVeigh definitely has what it takes to succeed.
ADY JOHNSON
Thank You For The Good Things
independent
Time for a folkin’ good EP now, and here comes Ady Johnson with just the job. I like an EP. Hopefully, it means they’ve cut out the filler which seems prevalent on albums nowadays, and just stuck to the good stuff. And that certainly seems to be the case here.
He’s a singery / songwritery fella who used to be in a rock group, so there’s not much in the way of hey nonny no around here. But then he is working with producer Gerry Diver (Lisa Knapp, Sam Lee), so there wasn’t much chance of that. At time it teeters on the verge of lo-fi, alt-folk, which is never a good thing, but the songs themselves are strong enough to fight it off.
The best of them is the title track, the autobiographical ‘Thank You For The Good Things’, which is just a great song with great words. And you can’t ask for more than that. The arrangement is also fantastic, and if the rest of the EP doesn’t match it, that just because it’s so gosh darned good.
KING KING
Reaching For The Light
Hatman
Studio album number three from King King, led by bekilted Scotchman Alan Nimmo, and it continues their move away from the blues into the wider world of rawk. There is still plenty of blues rock around, but it’s more classic seventies rock than anything else.
Now I’m not complaining about that, as seventies rock is where I will go to die, so the likes of ‘Hurricane’, ‘Waking Up’ and ‘You Stopped The Rain’ are welcome round my way. Granted, after a few plays, I’m still more inclined to the previous “Standing In The Shadows”, but I understand why they’re trying to move more into the mainstream.
The band themselves are in fine fettle, with great performances from Lindsay Coulson (bass), Wayne Proctor (drums & percussion and Bob Fridzema (Hammond organ & keyboards), and they sound like a proper band, who know exactly how to slot everything together. Mr Nimmo has said “we all want to take this band as far as we can…You want to sell as many albums as possible”, and there is nothing wrong with ambition, especially when you’ve got the talent to go with it.
BUDDY RICH
Birdland
Wienerworld
I’m not old enough to remember Buddy Rich, bar a sight of him on a seventies chat show, where his wig absolutely terrified me, but this was a man who thumped the drums for the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Ventura, Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa, as well as leading his own band.
This ‘new’ CD is collated from tapes made by Alan Gauvin, who was the saxophonist in the Buddy Rich band back in the seventies, and although the songs were recorded on portable tape deck, they sound better than you would have thought. Mr Rich certainly had his own way of keeping rhythm, and it’s interesting to hear his interpretation of standards like ‘God Bless the Child’. And when you move away from the drums, his band is in fine form with some especially good piano work.
People looking for pristine production should steer clear, as it’s probably B+ bootleg quality, but when you get past that, there is more than the odd glimpse of why his star shone so long.
VARIOUS
MusiCares Tribute To Paul McCartney
Eagle Vision
On 10th February 2012, Sir Paul McCartney was honoured as the 2012 MusiCares Person Of The Year. I’ve no idea what that means, but I assume it has something to do with doing good work for charidee while not wanting to talk about it. And to that end, a whole bunch of people got together to sing Beatles tunes. Apart from Alison Krauss.
Things kick off with a medley from the Cirque du Soleil featuring The Beatles Love before the man himself arrives to shout his way through ‘Magical Mystery Tour’. Because like his fellow knight of the realm, Sir Elton John, one thing that Sir Mac cannot do these days is sing. He can shout, but he can’t sing. After his segment a whole bunch of people come along to show how great he is including Norah Jones, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Sergio Mendes and, ta-dah, Coldplay. And to be fair, he did write some good songs, although you’d be hard pushed to know it after hearing Coldplay murder ‘We Can Work It Out’.
The one exception is when Alison Krauss & Union Station take to the stage to perform his solo hit ‘No More Lonely Nights’. It’s absolutely fabulous and shows what could have happened, had people been steered clear of the sixties. The mans himself reappers for a couple of tunes including one from his then new album of standards, before Dave Grohl arrives to lower the bar even further.
It’s well filmed and looks excellent, although the DVD has no special features to add to the music. For McCartney completists only.
The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
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