Review: The Beatles with Tony Sheridan - The Beatles and Tony Sheridan:First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition

In 1960 the Beatles were playing in Hamburg, Germany where they met a young singer and guitarist named Tony Sheridan. They hit it off and by their second trip to Germany in 1961 they ended up playing with him quite often with either the Beatles backing Tony, or Tony sitting in with the Beatles.
German producer Bert Kaempfert of Polydor, took in one of their shows and suggested they record together. He signed both acts the same night at his kitchen table. The Beatles at the time were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best.
The Beatles recorded 7 songs during this time and were paid in advance for another session that took place in 1962. At this later session they recorded the backup tracks for “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Swanee River” on which Sheridan was able to record his parts the next day. It seems that the recording of “Swanee River” was never released and is now lost.
Of the songs that the Beatles had recorded in Hamburg, two were Beatles songs, “Ain’t She Sweet” and and the instrumental, “Cry for a Shadow”. Polydor Records expected that Sheridan would be the next big star and so they made the mistake of letting the Beatles get away. They went back to Liverpool, picked up Brian Epstein as manager, replaced Pete Best with Ringo Starr and the rest is history.
There have been other versions of the Tony Sheridan songs recorded and there has been some confusion over which tracks the Beatles did or didn’t play on. The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition contains all of the tracks that the Beatles played on in those sessions except for the missing “Swanee River”. This album contains the stereo and mono versions of these songs as well as the U.S. Versions which had some guitar and vocal overdubs to make them sound edgier.
Being able to hear what the Beatles sounded like before they found 'their sound' makes this album an important piece of rock and roll history. The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition is a must for any Beatles fan.

5/5 Stars

Key Tracks: Ain’t She Sweet, Cry For A Shadow

Kirk Bullough

Disc: 1  01. Ain’t She Sweet (U.S. version) – The Beatles  02. My Bonnie - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  03. The Saints (When the Saints Go Marching In) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  04. Cry for a Shadow - The Beatles  05. Why - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  06. If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby) (U.S. version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  07. Nobody’s Child (U.S. version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  08. Sweet Georgia Brown (New lyrics) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  09. Ain’t She Sweet - The Beatles  10. My Bonnie (English intro) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  11. If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  12. Nobody’s Child - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  13. Sweet Georgia Brown (U.S. version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  14. My Bonnie (German intro) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  15. The Saints (Medley version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  16. Cry for a Shadow (Medley version 1) - The Beatles  17. Sweet Georgia Brown - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  18. My Bonnie (Medley version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  19. Cry for a Shadow (Medley version 2) - The Beatles

Disc: 2  01. Ain’t She Sweet - The Beatles  02. My Bonnie - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  03. When the Saints Go Marching In - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  04. Cry for a Shadow - The Beatles  05. Why - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  06. Sweet Georgia Brown (New lyrics) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  07. My Bonnie (English intro) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  08. If You Love Me, Baby (Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  09. Nobody’s Child - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  10. My Bonnie (German intro) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  11. The Saints (Medley version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  12. Cry for a Shadow (Medley version 1) - The Beatles  13. Sweet Georgia Brown - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  14. My Bonnie (Medley version) - Tony Sheridan And The Beatles  15. Cry for a Shadow (Medley version 2) - The Beatles

Artists: The Beatles with Tony Sheridan

Title: The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: First Recordings 50th Anniversary Edition

Genre: Rock

Label: Polydor Records

Website: http://www.thebeatles.com/

Review: Royal Hunt - Show Me How To Live

Let the hunt begin! Cue horse sounds, bring in the timpani and medieval battle music, add some swords clanging, fade in the operatic voices then cresendo to a boil.

Sounds like the makings of some great cinema and it is inside my head where I am picturing knights going out to battle their enemies and DC Cooper is back to lead that charge.

Show Me How To Live is a return to the classic Royal Hunt sound. It’s teeming with big, slick melodic arrangements, layers of glossy keyboards and jaw dropping guitar licks. A lot of care has been taken to make everything sound larger than life. Royal Hunt (est. 1989) are Andre Andersen (Keyboard) , DC Cooper (Vocals), Allan Sorensen (Drums), Andreas Passmark (Bass) and Jonas Larsen (Guitar).

“Another Man Down” starts slow with some mythical sounding piano and builds into a powerful, impassioned rock anthem. The Bass at the beginning of this song really creates the mood. The chorus sounds majestic with its harmonized vocals dripping with luring textures. I love the wah driven guitar solo in the middle of the song. It ends with DC singing “I open my eyes and I envy another man down” as everything fades out.

“An Empty Shell” is anything but empty with its driving keyboards and rhythm section. There is an amazing lightning fast keyboard solo towards the end that reminds me of something off of Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force, followed by an equally scorching guitar solo.

“Hard Rain’s Coming” is a pleasant surprise with its harpsichord intro shadowed by overdriven guitar power chords. There is some amazing bass work in the interlude and the guitar lines just seem to float like a feather over the top of it.

“Half Past Loneliness” starts with a hypnotizing bass line and that amazing snare sound peppers this whole album like ‘it’ was the spice of life.

The rest the album finishes strong with another anthem, “Show Me How To Live” and wraps it up with “Angel’s Gone” with its classical pizzicato strings, timpani and organ sounds leading into a great guitar solo and more colossal vocals. This song builds to monumental heights adding guitar solos on top of keyboard solos on top of drums solos with the bass holding everything together like glue. A few orchestra hits, some really cool drums and, “sigh”, the battle is won!

Show Me How To Live has made the wait for a new Royal Hunt album worth it. Certainly this strong release will close out the year with tremendous momentum that will carry them into 2012 and beyond.

 4/ 5 stars

Key Tracks: Another Man Down, Show Me How To Live, Hard Rains Coming

Kirk Bullough

Tracks: 1. One More Day 2. Another Man Down 3. An Empty Shell 4. Hard Rain's Coming 5. Half Past Loneliness 6. Show Me How To Live 7. Angel's Gone

Artists: Royal Hunt

Title: Show Me How To Live

Genre: Progressive Metal

Label: Frontiers Records

Website: http://www.royalhunt.com

Review: Roy Roberts - Strange Love

Is it possible to call an album the blues when it makes me feel good? If this is what Strange Love feels like I could easily become and addict.
Blues Legend Roy Roberts has one of those voices that feels like an old friend. I liked it from the first listen. It’s the perfect courier to carry Roy’s thought provoking lyrics over a sea of tasty guitar licks.
This album starts strong with a funky little blues number called “My Love Bone”. It has a nice groove and the keyboard part takes me back to Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, which seems fitting since Roy has played with Stevie.
Listening to “I Truly Love You” I kept trying to nail down what it reminded me of. After listening to it for a couple of days I realize that it had the same feel as “This Old Heart of Mine” by the Isley Brothers. I think you can hear B.B. King’s influence in “Hey Baby” and “I Can’t Wait” sounds like a cross between Chuck Berry and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
My favorite track on the album is “A Woman Needs Love”. If Plato were alive today Roy would give him a run for his money when it comes to philosophy. Here is a man that has lived and is willing to pass on some of his wisdom. I’ll take it!
The arrangements on Strange Love are just right. Every note seems to be completely thought out. There isn’t a stray note anywhere.

4/5 Stars

Key Tracks: A Woman Needs Love, The Next Time, I Truly Love You

Kirk Bullough

Tracks: 1.   My Love Bone 2.   I truly Love You 3.   Hey Baby 4.   Strange Love 5.   I'm Never Gonna Stop 6.   Wait For Me 7.   A Woman Needs Love 8.   We Still Together 9.  The Next Time 10. I Can't Wait

Artist: Roy Roberts

Title: Strange Love

Genre: Blues

Label: Ocean Beach Records

Website: http://www.royrobertsblues.com/

Review: Vangough – Kingdom of Ruin

Kingdom of Ruin is an epic journey down the rabbit hole.

The opening track “Disloyal” begins with a music box and the haunting voice of Clay Withrow singing softly and a falsetto voice doubling it in the background. “Reach inside my open chest, feel around there’s nothing left,” and then Wham! you are hit with a wall of chunky, thick rhythm guitars, chest pounding bass and a plethora of double kick drum rolls.

There is nothing better than lightning fast synchronized guitar and bass runs and Vangough deliver.

If this were the way the rest of the album went it would be a great album, but it’s so much better. About a third of the way through the song they pull the foundation right out from under song. They start playing ethereal, spatial material. The guitar lays down some really outside, dissonant lines. After some whammy bar dives they head into a big finish with big melodic vocals and harmonies. The song ends with a bit of eerie keyboard and some scream-o type moaning.

The rest of the album gets more diverse as it moves along, from the deep drop tuned guitars in “Choke Faint Drown,” to the amazing keyboards at the beginning “Abandon Me”. “Drained” has its double bass drum rolls and bendy guitar riffs. There is acoustic guitar sprinkled all throughout this album.

All of these tracks build up to “Kingdom of Ruin”. This is where the album diverges from the straight and narrow path of progressive rock and starts throwing in some more interesting elements: piano, scream-o, guitar harmonics tricks and acoustic guitar solos. “The Transformation” has pizzicato strings and cello. “The Rabbit Kingdom” has an almost classical feel.

“Stay” starts out with acoustic guitar and then weaves between a ballad and a classic rock track with an intense bluesy solo at the end that finishes with a nice Rhodes piano sound. “Sounds of Wonder” has just a hint of jazz that reminds me a little of Pat Metheny.

I think my favorite track on the album is “A Father’s Love” which is a beautiful piano ballad. Heart felt lyrics and gut wrenching vocals make this one a must listen.

The pace is picked up again with “Requiem for a Fallen King” and then to “An Empire Shattered” which reminds me of bands like Queen, Supertramp and Yes. Things slow down again with another piano ballad, “Alice”.

The album ends with “The Garden Time Forgot”. I can’t place it in a genre, it’s like someone took the best music of the last 3 decades, and a few pan flutes and threw them into a blender and poured out this last song. You could really say that of this whole album. You can tell Vangough loves music. Vangough are: Clay Withrow (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards), Brandon Lopez (drums), Corey Mast (keyboards), Jeren Martin (bass)

4/5 Stars

Key Tracks: Abandon Me, Alice, A Father’s Love

Kirk Bullough

Tracks: 1. Disloyal 2. Choke Faint Drown 3. Abandon Me 4. Drained 5. Kingdom of Ruin 6. Frailty 7. The Transformation 8. The Rabbit Kingdom 9. Stay 10. Sounds of Wonder 11. A Father's Love 12. Requiem for a Fallen King 13. An Empire Shattered 14. Alice 15. The Garden Time Forgot

Artist: Vangough
Title: Kingdom of Ruin
Genre: Progressive Rock
Label: Nightmare Records
Release Date: 2011
Website: http://www.officialvangough.com