JOHN EMMS MUSIC REVIEWS

What passes for music on the top of the charts all sounds like the same songs to me

Same production tricks. Same auto-tune vocals. Same dance moves. Different faces.

What’s up with that????????

Soon as something becomes popular someone will clone it. It happens in any genre. Pop, country, rock, hip hop.

 Indie artists? Are you selling any cd’s? Not too many. Of course not, your still stuck in your practice room

By all means practice.  But hell …DARE TO TO BE DIFFERENT

Hell, you could give me a hundred wannabe pretenders. But these days where is the “real thing’  People like John Lennon.  Waylon Jennings etc. They must be hiding.  

Main  advice.

Get out and play. In fact get out of town. Whatever little or big town your stuck in get out. No one is going to bang on your door, and say “We want you to be the next big thing”

Do you think the Foo Fighters, Adele, Lady Gaga, or Kid Rock made their mark playing top 40 cover songs. Sure, they may have played them. But they started writing their own songs and went where the music was. They got management. They got an agent and they went on tour. (that’s of course is another column)

Now everyone is looking to the big money and an American Idol showcase. THAT’S BULLSHIT

Sure there is talent on new shows like THE  VOICE.  But wake up. Be yourself above all. Someone will notice if you get out there and be yourself.

 Chris Martin of Coldplay (in photo) used to say you were day jobbing if you were not living the music day and night. Heck, you may not like Coldplay or Bryan Adams or whoever but they got off their arse and made it happen.

Now people are covering THEIR SONGS. 

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, online radio host and musician

ADELE-21-Talk about soul folks

This is what happens when songs meet talent and voice meets reality.

NO CRAP HERE ..Rumour Has It, Turning Tables , He Wont Do, I’ll Be Waiting..on and on it goes.

The most organic and real album I have heard this year

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION

Ok, sometimes musicians from different bands get togther and it does not gel

 Not here!

The groove put out by BCC is simply down and nasty.

 This cd will never out sell the new fangled Foo Fighters cd.(which is good) because it sounds dated…That’s the good part folks

Hard won rockers like One Last Soul, No Time, (not the Guess Who) and Down Again are dangerous.

Guess what? Joe Bonamassa sings his ass off  on Song Of Yesterday while Glenn Hughes rips out his lungs on Medusa. 
 Bonamassa throws his head back and just riffs.  Bonham, Sherinian, and especially Hughes and producer Kevin Shirley add glue..  IT STICKS 

Funny thing  ROXETTE’S new cd CHARM SCHOOL remembers that a good hook still goes down well anywhere on the planet

At least Four Standout trax-No One Makes It Her Own,  Speak To Me..both..ballads….few of the rockers are ok

RADIOHEAD-Hell I wish I had the balls to do this..Swirling soundscapes electronic mumbo jumbo .WOW IT’S making sense in my day WHY?

But will it make sense..the rest of this summer?

Willie Nelson/Wynton/Marsalis Here We Go Again-(celebrating the genius of Ray Charles)

Ray would dig the jazz solos. They are big on tecnhique. Norah Jones can really sing. Willie sounds real, but somehow they have taken the SOUL out of Ray’s visceral  music. I go back to Ray C.

JOHN EMMS is veteran music journalist, online radio host and musician

Like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan Jeff  Healey and today’s guitar slingers like  Joe Bonamassa Rory Gallagher is considered to be among the holy grail of  electric blues/ rock guitarists.

One listen to the Irish Tour cd in this remastered form basically lets you wonder aloud and become mesmerized by the entire band let alone Gallagher’s fret work in addition to the extraordinary crowd response.

Don’t look for overdubs or pre-recorded backing tapes. Nope this cd comes down to basically a four piece blues-rock  band with heavy dynamics and extended solos.

In fact most of the material is over 5 minutes with a few tracks pulling in the station in excess of 8 to 10 minutes. What’s always excited  me and my friends about  this cd is how Gallagher sings, entertains the audience and simply pulls off some of the most galvanizing guitar work ever put on record.

Not a lot of people could pull that off in the context of a four piece band with a sold out crowd in your face.

The blues solo on Muddy Water’s I Wonder Who cuts like a sharp edged sword through your body. In fact, the dynamics and volume control by Gallagher is simply killer throughout the cd. Check out A Million Miles Away, Tatooe’d Lady and the slide work on Who’s That Coming.

What’s often left out is the fact that Gallagher’s band of bassist Gerry McAvoy, drummer Rod de’ Ath and Lou Martin on keyboards were full on players with killer chops.

Look for my review of the blu-ray IRISH TOUR 74 and other great titles

JOHN EMMS is an online blues/roots radio show host, musician and veteran music journalist