JOHN EMMS MUSIC REVIEWS

On the album Sammy Hagar & Friends, Hagar and company do what musicians are supposed to do.

Sing and play really well.

This cd has that in spades.

But fans should know, the album is all over the place,

Yet because of that fact  there is at least 4 or 5 songs primed for radio

Father Sun has a New Orleans feel on verses with a shots of riff rock and that could have come from Hagar’s Three Lock Box era.

Album radio will love both Winding Down a blues based track written with Taj Mahal and the re-make of Personal Jesus which just kills all the while letting friend Neal Schon break free with a kick ass solo.

There are some strange twists like Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville (covered too many times) with Toby Keith which does neither artist justice,

Yet the live version of Space Station #5 from The Ronnie Montrose Benefit Concert (deluxe version) just smokes and features a dazzling vocal by Hagar and dangerous axe work from Joe Satriani

Prettiest song  is without a doubt the short and catchy All We Need Is An Island with Heart’s Nancy Wilson.

Sammy Hagar has been living and breathing rock n’ roll for 40 years.

Let’s face facts.

He is pretty damn good at it!

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, has a rockin’ radio show  http://emms.podbean.com/ and rocks the blues with his band THE SHAFTMEN https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-worlds-gone-crazy/id673101570

http://emms.podbean.com/ or

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/superb-song-choices-john-emms/id376049866?mt=2

Heck, if your NOT a musician because you love it, stop now.

Paul McCartney as varied as his career has been is a musician because he always loved it.

He does not need the money folks.

Making music for musicians as famous as McCartney or even heck myself is all about making people feel what your writing and playing.

It’s that simple.

And on McCartney’s 16th solo album you “feel it”

This album woke me up to the realization that even after all his success McCartney has no intention of living off his amazing catalogue of great songs.

Think about that.

The tracks on New feel fresh but familiar.

It does not mean your going to think everything here is or should be a hit.

Why should it be.

Been there done that with The Beatles folks.

What you have here is four producers Paul Epworth, Mark Ronson, Giles Martin and Ethan Johns interacting with McCartney on a musical level.

New is a varied piece of work.

Tracks like Queenie Eye and Save Us have inventive chord progressions and they rock

Heck,  Ethan Johns and Macca will bring you almost to tears with Early Days.

The song brings out the innocence of why anybody ever bothered to get excited about being in a band and making music

It’s that good!

Giles Martin lets the melodies speak, and then surrounds them with a more modern spare studio production. At the heart of On My Way to Work, Looking At Her and the piano driven of hidden song Scared (not the Lennon song) the songs are laid bare for all to see.

Mark Ronson gives us the Venus and Mars feel of the trippy Alligator, and then the killer pop of the title track.

I will be playing a lot of this new album on my radio show. That’s a given.

It’s simply really good folks

In the end McCartney summed it up in a press release.

“The next thing for me is to get together with the band and learn the whole album,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to it – I’ve never done that ‘Play the entire album’ thing. People have asked me about this before and I’ve always said I’ve got too much other stuff to play, but now I’m really excited to see how the songs will sound – there are a few I have my eye on that were made to play live!”

JOHN  EMMS is a veteran music journalist, radio host and singer-songwriter with THE SHAFTMEN

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-worlds-gone-crazy/id673101570

www.theshaftmen.com

and solo https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/close-another-door/id392307439

No one expected an album this good after over a 25 year gap, but Coney Hatch Four simply brims with muscular riffs and good solid songcraft.

Fans should have no reservations about scooping up this album worldwide.

Why?

It kills.

From the four on the floor rumble of Blown Away with Andy Curran’s bottom end and drummer Dave Ketchum’s musuclar drumming into the wah wah guitar solo of Steve Shelski everyone is aboard Carl Dixon’s passion on the very first track

The music somehow just feels right.

Curran takes the reigns on the anthemic powerhouse of Boy’s Club, the Cheap trick vibe of  Do it Again (not the Steely Dan track) and the great chunk heavy chorus of We Want More.

Elsewhere, Dixon’s sense of songcraft is in excellent form on Holding On and Revive.

It’s no secret the band flies higher thanks to Shelski’s great sense of guitar dynamics and inventive solos, but it all comes down to the chemistry of the four players.

With  the amazing gutsy return of Carl Dixon from his near fatal car crash this album is steering it’s own course!

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist,

radio host

http://emms.podbean.com/

and songwriter/vocalist with Canada’s newest blues rockers THE SHAFTMEN

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-worlds-gone-crazy/id673101570

The first thing you notice on Jonny Lang’s new album Fight For My Soul is how Lang’s passionate vocals have become more nuanced, direct and focused.  And yes, he still displays some very hip guitar work.

However, some reviewers seem to be missing the point that Lang has invested a lot of emotion in this recording.

On tracks like the R & B numbers  What Your Looking For, and the terrific title track Lang and producer Tommy Sims would make Curtis Mayfield proud.

Elsewhere Breakin’ In sounds like a pop hit, while the eloquent Seasons and The Truth are revealing tracks, the latter eventually busting into some Gary Moore-esque guitar work behind Jonny’s superb lead vocal.

There is no doubt some blues based fans would love to have more tracks like the modern muscle and funky riff of the Stevie Wonder influenced We Are The Same and the single Blew Up the House.

This is new territory and one heck of a soulful return.

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, blues radio host   http://emms.podbean.com/   and songwriter with Canada’s blues rockers THE SHAFTMEN https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-worlds-gone-crazy/id673101570

If Hank Snow was alive and in his prime Tim Hus and Hank would qualify as one heck of a tour. Pack it all in the back of a Western Star and Move On.

Yep, folks this is one heck of a batch of great songs written by Hus.

Produced by Harry Stinson and using amazing players like guitarist Kenny Vaughan and Hus’s own fiddler Billy MacInnis with Stinson’s drums in the pocket with upright bassist Riley Tubbs make you just want to turn this up driving and pass everything in sight.

Honestly, it’s hard to believe but Hus can sing about any subject and it make it bonafide

Check out the lyric for the title track.

I’m a two-way teamster transport truckin’
Diesel demon double-clutchin’
Makin’ my way along every highway whenever you are
I’m a white line wrangler wheeling my wide load in my Western Star

Elsewhere Halifax Blues and The Church of Country Music celebrate Alexander Keith, South Shore girls, and George Jones at the country music altar with condolences to Merle Haggard and Hank Williams.

Heck, I’m telling you Hus has written some gems on this album .

The tone and the lyrical vibe of Madawaska River is a musical nod to the great Stompin’ Tom Connors and would have gone down well at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins Ontario, where I once brought Jeff Healey because he wanted play in the same room as Stompin’ Tom.

And yes, for you Alberta folks that’s a true story.

In one word folks Tim Hus’s Western Star is BONAFIDE

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, online radio host and songwriter with Canada’s real life’ hard rock miners THE SHAFTMEN..

The band’s music is available worldwide including AMAZON, SPOTIFY, and APPLE ITUNES https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/the-worlds-gone-crazy/id673101570

http://emms.podbean.com/….