Joanne Shaw Taylor - The Trouble With Love (Journeyman Records)
If the new owners of 007 are looking for the next Bond theme then might I suggest This Is Who I Am from the latest Joanne Shaw Taylor album, The Trouble With Love, the slow burning track originally by Celeste, features Joanne's soulful vocals against plaintive piano stings and sweeping orchestration.
It's a barn burner but one of many on this latest record, from the rollicking title track which features long time friend/collaborator Joe Bonamassa on extra guitar, to the emotional Tired Of Being Right, the gospel blues of Hell Or High Water or the painful What Good Is My Love which features Orianthi, these two guest slots indicative of the records theme of exploring relationships.
Not just romantic ones, but toxic ones on Bad Boy and ones where friendship is at the heart, often offering something stronger than any relationship, as Joanne proves with the showstopping You And Me (Rachel's Song), showing vulnerability, as Never Gonna Please Them has a defiant fire to it.
Every track on The Trouble With Love features those raspy, authentic vocals and guitar wizardary that seamlessly moves between different soundscapes, capturing blues rock toughness, soulful honesty and some atmospheric wonderment on Death Wish.
Each track sonically boosted by Kevin Shirley to add another brilliant record to Joanne Shaw Taylor collection. 8/10
Bernie Marsden - STAGE (Conquest Music)
The fifth and final album in the Bernie Marsden Inspirations Series is STAGE, celebrating the place where this titan of British blues rock was perhaps most at home.
His live performances were always something to behold, especially in South Wales as he became the house artist for Steelhouse Festival for a number of years, with Steelhouse Festival founders, Mikey & Max paying haonge to great man in the linear notes for this album who will always remain a Steelhouse legend.
STAGE combines four live concerts from across three decades, each showcasing Marsden's brilliant voice and guitar playing, but also his warmth and charisma that endeared him to anyone that was in the room with home while he performed.
Opening with an intimate acoustic performance from The Radcliffe Centre, Buckingham in 2008, it's great way to ease yourself into Marsden on stage, intricate playing, soft strings and an audience in awe as he plays Out On The Western Plains a Leadbelly tune that he makes his own.
While closing this side with Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City, the Bobby 'Blue' Bland track that Marsden introduced to David Coverdale and became a Whitesnake staple from then on, stripped back to it's roots, it perhaps hits harder with the additional strings.
The second set is culled from his 2019 slot on the Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea, cruise and features rollicking tracks such as Boss Of The Blues and Reconsider Baby, all with a brass section parping behind him, showcasing the versatility of his playing.
Side C gets old school Blues rock showcase from Notodden Blues Festival, Norway in 1996, Marsden joined by Snowy White, Tony Ashton, David Levy & Henry Spinetti, for an incendiary set that ends with a ferocious version of Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well.
So far there's every facet of Bernie Marsden's playing, the last part of the record coming from Under The Bridge in 2020, the influence of Marsden can be really felt here with Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues form 1979's Lovehunter and a killer guitar duel with Joe Bonamassa on Walking By Myself originally by Jimmy Rogers but more famously by The Gary Moore.
After his untimely passing in 2023, these records serve as documents of a life well lived. With STAGE he's surrounded by friends and fans who are left in no doubt that this is where Bernie Marsden belongs. 8/10
Robin Trower - Shine (Provogue Records)
There are living legends in this industry and then there are musicians like Robin Trower, at 81 years old he's still creating and writing and touring, his late career creativity just as important to him as those early days with Procol Harum and 1974's Bridge Of Sighs.
As I said, as Trower shifted into legendary status, he didn't take the easy way out and regurgitate those early songs that are rock radio staples, instead he chose to keep writing and performing as in his words: “I think you’ve either got to keep pushing – or give up.”
There's no fear of giving up, Trower is a man who will be eeking emotion out of that Stratocaster until the very end, playing with all the heart and soul as he did in his younger years. Across nearly thirty records, he's collaborated with numerous artists, most recently Sari Schorr.
His own volumes of work is frightening, eight albums in ten years, and no signs of slowing down yet as Shine continues that creative pace as a record that is about the struggle of now but tried not to be to maudlin, instead Trower, wants to give hope.
There's a feeling if hope that runs through the record, it's funky, bluesy and features that oh so memorable guitar sound of Trower's with Live Your Time, The Missing Piece, and the moody Driving Through all featuring the best guitar work for my money as Trower takes guitar and bass on this record.
Chris Taggart's drums anchors the grooves and Richard Watts proves to be the best vocal foil for Trower's playing, though Jess Hayes does a great job on Truth, joining this well established band easily on more guitar driven bluesing from this definition of a legend. 8/10
Eric Steckel - Sandstorm (SPV)
Eric Steckel does things the old way, inspired by Joe Bonamassa, Walter Trout, Rory Gallagher Stevie Ray Vaughan or any act that defines authentic, organic blues rock, without the need for studio tricks, cinematic soundscapes and the like, just emotional soulful vocals and powerhouse guitar playing.
Having played in over 30 countries, the 23 year veteran is no young hotshot, though he is only 34, he's been storming stages for a long while now with something described as blues metal, a fierce concoction of heavy riffs he's been lauded as one of the best blues guitarists in the world and his new album Sandstorm is hell of a lot of fun for blues rock fans.
Packed with meaty riffs, tracks such as The Other Guy and What I Want To Believe have a macho heavy metal ethos to them, the latter falling into some Alter Bridge grooves. Steckel can also capture the pure spirirt of the blues with the Blues For The Lonely and the smokey slinking of Empty Promises, here channeling the dram and staging of Gary Moore.
Eric has a pretty high pedigree having played with/in support of Ray Charles, B.B King and John Mayall and that just seeps through every note of Sandstorm, and while he's a new name to me, I'm going to be deep diving into the catalogue of Eric Steckel on the back of how darn good this album is. 9/10
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