Flashback #10 - Detective

BOOM-CHUNG-KER-CHUNK!

That, folks, is an attempt to put into writing a signature element in Led Zeppelin’s sound – the kind of monster shuffling groove that John Bonham laid down so often.  An inadequate impression I know, and only one aspect of Zeppelin’s many-faceted aesthetic.  But still, that kind of thunderous rhythm from Bonzo is the kind of thing that got songs by subsequent rockers labelled as “Zep-esque”.

Why am I mentioning this?  It’s because I want to recall a short-lived Anglo-American outfit from the Seventies who appropriated elements of the Zeppelin sound more effectively than most.  That band were Detective.

BOOM-CHUNG-KER-CHUNK!

When Detective get cooking on ‘Ain’t None Of Your Business’, the sixth track on their eponymous 1977 debut, drummer Jon Hyde goes to town on a rhythm like that, and with a

Nice threads guys - well, it was 70s America

cavernous sound to match.  And there are variations on the Bonzo theme on a few other tracks into the bargain.

Hyde was probably the most un-Bonham like dude you could come across – a total abstaining health freak before such a lifestyle became fashionable.  But boy did he get that Bonham drum sound down.

Hyde’s drumming isn’t the only reason for the Zeppelin comparison.  There are some Page-like riffs and layering in there too.  And apart from elements of their sound, it so happened that Jimmy Page took a shine to Detective, they signed for Swan Song, and at one stage Page was slated to produce them.  Comparisons were inevitable.

Now, comparisons can be odious, but in this case it doesn’t mean that Detective were just unoriginal copyists.  They were far better than that.  So for the uninitiated, who the hell were they?

The two key proponents of Detective were Brit vocalist Michael Des Barres and American guitarist Michael Monarch.  Des Barres had been singer with glam rockers Silverhead - this month featured in a Classic Rock article by Geoff Barton on bands signed by Purple Records, of whom more later.  Monarch, meanwhile, had been in none other than Steppenwolf, cranking out the riff on ‘Born To Be Wild’, before hooking up with Hyde and ultimately bringing him into the Detective equation.

BOOM-BOOM-DA-THUMP!

That’s the twitching shuffle on ‘Grim Reaper’, counterpointed with a lurching guitar riff from Monarch in a distinctly Zep-like fashion, and jack-knifing into explosive rolls around the kit for emphasis.

The others in the line-up were no bums either.  On keys was Tony Kaye, once of Yes fame, bringing extra layers to the sound on the likes of ‘Grim Reaper’.  And on bass was Bobby Pickett, a former member of Sugarloaf whose latest gig had been backing Etta James, indicative of someone who could (and did) bring funk to the bottom end when required.

BOOM-THUMP!

That’s the steady, anchoring stomp on the raucous ‘Got Enough Love’, bolstered by locked-in bass from Pickett, and with Des Barres giving it plenty with his full-throated vocal.  The fact that he doesn’t sound just like Percy Plant is a useful distinguishing characteristic

Don't judge an album by its dull cover

throughout.

The reason all this is deemed a Flashback is that my first introduction to Detective was a review in Sounds, the inky weekly that I read for years in the 70s and 80s, by the aforesaid Geoff Barton.  To be honest I don’t recall the review in detail, but I’d hazard a guess that it was fairly positive, and made the Zeppelin comparison.  What I most remember is Barton describing Des Barres’ holler of “RECOGNISSHUN!” on the opening track, making it sound like a statement of intent from a self-confident bunch.

A little while later I came across a copy of the album in some record library, and so inevitably taped it onto one side of a C90, as one did back then.  And then let it rip.

Detective had more strings to their bow than the whole Zeppelin thing.  The opener ‘Recognition’ is subdued to start with, before opening up in a relaxed arrangement and featuring a tasteful solo from Monarch.  ‘Nightingale’ kicks off in a mellow mood that could be the prototype for the kind of AOR that would make Foreigner famous, before revving up into a powerful crescendo, on which . . .

BOOM-BA-DA-DUM-CRASH-CRASH!

. . . Jon Hyde detonates some pounding flourishes to underpin proceedings.  It sounds better than that, of course.

‘Detective Man’ is a slice of uptempo boogie, propelled by a strutting riff from Monarch and decorated by some rock’n’roll piano from Kaye.  And ‘Wild Hot Summer Nights’ is a handsome cousin of Wild Cherry’s ‘Play That Funky Music’.

With all this to their credit, why weren’t Detective huge?  Same old, same old really - substance abuse, delays in recording that cost them a mint, loss of momentum, less well received second album. So it goes.  But they were still responsible for a damn good album of hard-hitting, funky rock.

Something put me in mind of Detective last year, so I did some exploring and came across a cd reissue on Rock Candy Records.  It’s been getting regular plays ever since.  You can find the whole album on YouTube - check it out.

BOOM-CHUNG-KER-CHUNK!

Although the basis for this piece is my own impressions and recollections, full credit to Paul Suter for his excellent sleeve notes for the reissue, which filled in the gaps in my knowledge.

The Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2017 - Part 2

So here it is, Merry Christmas.  Everybody having fun?

Part 1 of the Christmas Stocking shared some goodies from names who were new to me in 2017 - including Ash Wilson and the Starlite Campbell Band, who were responsible for two of the best albums of the year.  So who else lit up the year for Blues Enthused?

Toronzo Cannon, the most famous blues playing bus driver in Chicago, paid a flying visit to

Toronto Cannon plays tartan blues

Britain for a few dates in January and delivered a cracking show based on original material

rather than old standards.  Drawing heavily on his most recent album The Chicago Way, he demonstrated his talent for contemporary lyrics, both serious and funny, to go with his top quality guitar playing – and top quality band.  But for me the highlight of his set was the wild rendition of ‘John The Conquer Root’, from his 2013 album of the same name.

The brothers Nimmo had a traumatic year, to say the least.  Alan Nimmo suffered repeated vocal problems, causing King King to cancel several dates earlier in the year, and then take three months off from touring in the autumn.  Elder brother Stevie Nimmo, meanwhile, was in fine form as he and his Trio toured in the early part of the year.  But then he went and broke his arm in a cycling accident in the late summer.

The show must go on though, and Blues Enthused interviewed Alan Nimmo in the run-up to the release of King King’s latest album. Exile & Grace continued the band's steady rise, though for me it fell a tad shy of their best.  Irresistible rockers like ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’’ and ‘Long Time Running’, and emotional epics like ‘Broken’ and ‘Betrayed Me’, certainly hit the motherlode.  But ‘Find Your Way Home’ strayed a mite too close to REO Speedwagon ballad territory for me, and closer ‘I Don’t Want To Lie’ felt lightweight.  But hey, the King King boys are back on the road now, and new songs will undoubtedly catch fire in a live setting.

Meanwhile it was great to catch up with Stevie Nimmo for a chat back in March, and see

Not The Nimmo Brothers, honest

him continue to perform live in the autumn, broken arm and all. This gave fans the chance to see a unique line-up of the 'StevieNimmo Trio + 1' – the +1 being brother Alan, who took over on guitar for the tour while being hors de combat himself on the vocal front.  Stevie’s injury will delay the recording of a new album, but to hell with that – that bike crash was a sore one.

On a more positive note, the European Blues Award for Best Band went to Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, and for my money the Danish outfit are well worth it.  Their latest album Change My Game has strong songs, light and shade, and some big fat riffs, while Risager himself has a great rumble of a blues voice.  They delivered on the live front too, though I still think they could hit top gear a bit more often.  Still, I’m looking forward to a jaunt to see them on home turf in Copenhagen in February.  And in the meantime, here they are with the stonking ‘Maybe It’s Alright’.

US guitar honcho Eric Gales only has a top gear, and a turbo-boosted top gear at that.  His new album Middle Of The Road was good, but live he was something else altogether.  In my old age I’m less invested in guitar veneration, but it has to be said that Gales was total catnip to the guitar nuts who had assembled from near and far – and entertainingly so.  Here he is at the Dallas Guitar Show, with a mash-up of ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ and ‘All Along The Watchtower’.  Get your air guitar out!

If you want a real rock’n’roll thrill though, you need to go to a master like Steve Van Zandt.  His Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul show in Glasgow was one of the absolute highlights of my year, a riotous bouillabaisse of soul and R’n’B and rock’n’roll from a guy who’s imbibed and digested enough popular music to be a walking radio station.  Van Zandt

Samantha Fish - the Queen of '17

may be incongruously bashful with his between songs patter, fidgeting with his rings and his bandana, but when they count in the next song he and his band are a genre-busting, straight from the heart, Technicolor delight.  Here they are from that Glasgow gig, with ‘I Don’t Want To Go Home’.  They got that right.

And so to the Queen of 2017.  People, I give you Samantha Fish.  Two albums from her this year, of very different hues, and there are some who baulk at them because neither was the heavy duty electric blues they wanted.  Nuts to that.  Chills And Fever is one of my favourite albums of the year – a concept album, but not as prog rockers know it, Captain.  Dusting off a heap of rhythm’n’bluesy soul and pop tunes from the vaults, Sam Fish added stinging guitar and her own inimitable voice to create something that went way beyond a covers album.  “That’s the human condition,” she said in an interview.  “Love, desire, heartache . . . .”  I think Miami Steve would approve.

Then she released a semi-acoustic album, Belle Of The West, that got into songwriting, Americana style, painting pictures and creating moods with some deliciously subtle arrangements.  While your average blues rocker sticks to their knitting, here’s someone pushing boundaries.

And to top it all off, on her European tour young Samantha managed to blend all this with material from her previous album Wild Heart and rock everybody’s socks off onstage.  She’s hard-working, she’s fun, and she knows her own mind.  There’s more to come from Sam Fish.  As the lady herself put it, apropos of something else, “I guara-damn-tee it!”  So let’s give it up for her oil can guitar version of ‘Gone For Good’, in this video lovingly assembled by a fan.

That was the year that was.  Roll on 2018!

You can find Part 1 of the 2017 Christmas Stocking here.

The Blues Enthused Christmas Stocking 2017 - Part 1

So this is Christmas, and what have we done?  Another year over – and it’s been a pretty good one on the blues’n’roots’rock’n’rollin’ front.  It’s been a year of discoveries too.  Not necessarily all new artists by any means, and not all written about here either, but people I’ve tripped over the first time. Let’s unwrap some of the new finds Blues Enthused made in the course of the year, shall we?

Simon Campbell unwraps some 60s British blues - 21st century style

Just to prove the point that there are old timers out there you can still get acquainted with, I had fun reviewing the latest album by Washington DC’s The Nighthawks for Blues Matters magazine.  All You Gotta Do is a pretty damn enjoyable collection of old-fashioned R’n’B from a gang who’ve been around for god knows how long.  Check out this footage of ‘Livin’ The Blues’, from their earlier album 444.

Simon Campbell has also been kicking around for a looong time.  But in the company of his missus Suzy Starlite, he put together new outfit the Starlite Campbell Band to release one of my favourite albums of the year, Blueberry Pie.  It’s a crackling modern take on Sixties British blues, with strong songs, great guitar work, and sharp lyrics.  Lend an ear to these snippets of tracks from the album, and see what you think.
Just to complete a trio of oldsters, while I was on Blues Matters reviewing duty I also encountered James Litherland, once upon a time guitarist and vocalist in Colosseum.  His latest album Back'N'Blue is a classy collection of tunes showing the songsmithery of an old pro.  Often cool and funky, with clear, looping guitar lines snaking around your ears, he also weaves in some other styles with ease, and whenever I give the album a spin it's a treat.  Here he is wandering around the music shops of Soho, and going for a pint in the Angel pub - good choice by the way - to the strains of his single 'Can't Live Without You'.  Oh yeah, and there's Les Binks, once of Judas Priest, on drums!

I’ve also been introduced to a couple of truly solo performers, of the one-man band variety.  Latterly there’s been Canadian Steve Hill, who manages to get all Zep-tastic with guitar, cymbals and kick drum, all on his ownsome.  Here he is giving it big licks on ‘Dangerous’, from his album Solo Recordings: Volume 3.  And earlier in the year I reviewed High Dollar Gospel, the latest album by a fella from Virginia called Eli Cook, for Blues Rock Review.  In

Sean Webster - naturally soulful

the review I wondered why I hadn't heard of him before.  But bizarrely, I think I may have caught a bit of Cook playing live a few years back, late night in a bar in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I gather he does play with a band on occasion, but he was on his own that time, and he’s on his own here with this version of ‘Catfish Blues/Gasoline’.

Nearer to home, I reckon the newcomer making the most impact on record this year was Ash Wilson, with his album Broken Machine.  Wilson didn’t just announce himself with some bloody good soulful blues, served straight up, he chucked in a few twists of Josh Homme-like stylings for good measure.  You can also read here about how a rather iffy synth gave an edge to the title track of the album.  Wilson has ended the year taking over from Innes Sibun as guitar honcho for Sari Schorr, but here he is playing his own haunting tune ‘The Hitcher’ in London back in August.  And yes, those are indeed Bob Fridzema, Roger Inniss and Wayne Proctor making up his band.

Ash Wilson also described how he’d played previously with Netherlands-based Sean Webster, and spoke enviously of Webster’s aptitude with an emotional, soulful vocal.  By complete coincidence, it turned out Webster was the support act to King King on a jaunt I took to the Netherlands back in February, so I swiftly had the chance to catch him live

Elles Bailey - the kid shows promise

before reviewing his impressive new album Leave Your Heart AtThe Door.  Here he is performing one of my favourites from the album, ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’, with guest vocalist Pennyleen Krebbers, who also featured on the album version.

And it wouldn’t do to end this instalment without a contribution from the fairer sex – in this case the up and coming Elles Bailey.  The husky voiced Bristolian’s album Wildfire showed real promise, and she and her band lived up to that promise live too, straddling roots genres to good effect.  Here she is with a stripped back take on one of her best songs, the Janis Joplin-inspired ‘The Girl Who OwnedThe Blues’, from a Whispering Bob Harris session.

That little lot should keep you entertained for a while when the rest of the family decide to watch some rubbish Christmas telly.  Look out for Part 2 before the leftover turkey is finished!

Don't miss out on Part 2 of the Christmas Stocking.  Check it out here.

Listened to lately . . . Rob Tognoni, The Waterboys

Rob Tognoni – Brave

“Well throw another prawn on the barbie Bruce, and chuck me a cold one!”

Ahem.  Or to put it another way, with Aussie blues rocker Rob Tognoni coming to a parish near me next year, in the midst of numerous laps of Europe, I reckoned it was time to delve into the Tasmanian Devil’s catalogue.  So here we are with his most recent album, the 2016 release Brave.

If you like Dan Patlansky you might well like the Tog, methinks.  Sonically there are similarities, and they share a hoarse rasp on the vocal front.  But where Patlansky often

Rob Tognoni frying a few frets

deploys a post-grunge punch and edginess, Tognoni tends towards more of a good time

hard rockin’ vibe.  So ‘Voodoo Girl’ sounds like Big Boy Bloater on vocal duties for a rehash of Thin Lizzy’s live version of ‘Rosalie’, and ‘1974’ is a nostalgia trip in a similar vein to that Kid Rock mash-up of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Werewolves Of London’ from ten years ago.  ‘Latino Lounge’, meanwhile, is wah-wah laden lunacy.  It’s something you could imagine Dave Lee Roth cooking up with Steve Vai maybe, if they’d had a heavy night of partying, accompanied by an incessant tape loop of Phil Daniels’ contribution on ‘Parklife’.
Not that it’s all comic cuts.  ‘Dammed [sic] If I Did’ is a neat semi-acoustic blues that could have come from fellow Aussie Russell Morris.  On ‘You’ Tognoni conjures up violin effects, and adds in some Latin percussion for variety – as he also does on the title track. ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ revolves around a fresh, ringing guitar motif, while ‘Happy Birthday’ is straight ahead boogification, and the closing ‘Don’t Be Too Hard On Me’ is a lick-embroidered slice of SRV-style rockin’.

Don’t go to Rob Tognoni for philosophy.  Don’t expect the meaning of life – unless, of course, the meaning of life for you is brightly lit, let’s have a laugh, fret-frying rock’n’roll.  He’s a good bet for that.

Check out Rob Tognoni's 2018 European tour dates here.

The Waterboys – Out Of All This Blue

And now for something completely different.  When The Waterboys first came to prominence, back in the early Eighties, I would have positioned them among the widescreen New Wave acts of a Celtic background that included U2, Simple Minds and Big Country.  But that was a long time ago, and perhaps distracts from the extent to which roots music styles have informed the work of Waterboys kingpin Mike Scott in the subsequent decades. 

Mike Scott - spindly legged mystic rock'n'roller

Whether it’s the Celtic folk stylings of Fisherman’s Blues, or the punchy R’n’B undertones of Modern Blues, Scott has an inventive way with roots music, welding it to his clever, idiosyncratic lyrics to create music that’s fresh and original.

This year’s model of The Waterboys came in the form of Out Of All This Blue, a double album released back in September, on which Scott has opted to base most tracks on ‘drumscapes’ that he has constructed electronically, rather than relying on yer actual drummer type fella.

Now, that wouldn’t be my choice. Electronic beats have their place, but they’re no substitute for the rhythmic drive that contributed to Modern Blues being a belter of a recording.

Still and all, you can’t keep an imaginative muso and wordsmith down.  And Scott has duly achieved a decent hit rate of quality songs.  The likes of ‘If I Was Your Boyfriend’ and ‘If The Answer Is Yeah’ weld catchy tunes to Scott’s trademark humour and way with metre, and ‘New York I Love You’ – among others – displays his near unique talent for enlivening a narrative with a distinct sense of place.

The second disc kicks off in fine form, starting with the driving ‘Hammerhead Bar’ (with real drums from Ralph Salmins, I note), memorialising the madcap hostelry John Entwistle had in his mansion. ‘Mister Charisma’ is a brief and ambiguous contemplation of Keef and his eccentricities.  And ‘Nashville, Tennessee’ is a rootsy bit of country that simultaneously manages to celebrate Waterboys keys player and Nashville resident Brother Paul ‘Goldilocks’ Brown, and Memphis: “My heart is in Memphis, but my ass is in Nashville, Tennessee”.

Even the bonus ‘Blue Variations’ disc (in the deluxe edition) has some treats to offer, such as the opening ‘The Memphis Fox’, an ass-shaking instrumental take on ‘The Connemara Fox’ (from Disc 1) with Paul Brown’s organ to the fore over – fair play – a kick ass drumscape from Scott.  There’s a nu-soul in an alternate version of ‘Didn’t We Walk On Water’, with scat vocals from Jess Kav, and a live version of ‘Nashville, Tennessee’, recorded in Nashville itself on the day it was written – to a wowed audience, natch.

Okay, there are some lightweight eccentricities along the way that will probably make your shrug your shoulders rather than tap your toes.  But nothing ventured, nothing gained – and going on a trip with Mike Scott is always an adventure.

You can find details of The Waterboys' 2018 tour dates here.