REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: January 15, 2022

JOE BONAMASSA – A New Day Now

This is the 20th anniversary edition of A New Day Yesterday, that has been remixed, remastered, and re-sung – hence the new title. I remember seeing him on this tour at Southport (of all places), and thinking he was a killer player, but the place was far from full. Oh how things change! He is now the leading light of the blues movement and sells out venues all over the world, and boy does he deserve it! He as worked his ass off over the twenty years since this album was originally released.

This album is a mix of covers and originals, which he has done so well over the years. The covers are not what you would expect with tracks by Rory Gallagher, Free, Al Kooper, and the title track which was a Jethro Tull song. Joe’s version is a stone cold killer with some epic guitar. Of course Joe pays his respects to older blues artists paying homage to Albert King with Don’t Burn Down That Bridge. I have the original of this album, and this does sound amazing. It’s definitely worth buying as you get a bonus side with three extra tracks, with Line Of Denial being the best.

Even with all the heavyweight covers on the album, my favourite track is a Joe original with I Know Where I Belong. It has a great funky groove and swings along beautifully with an epic Joe solo. Joe doesn’t make bad records and this revamp is superb.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

STEELY DAN – Gaucho

So the year is 1980, and the music world is either rocking its brains out, or its new wave crazy. If you’re Steely Dan however, you are the kings of cool and releasing albums that are sonically so good they sound as though they are playing in your own room. Steely Dan release records that session musicians would release if there were no record labels to interfere. This would be the last album they would release until Two Against Nature in 2000.

The guest list of players is a who’s who of the session world, with the likes of Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro, The Brecker Brothers, Michael McDonald, and Larry Carlton – to name a few. I love Donald Fagen’s vocal style, and the way he uses words to tell stories is just sublime. They have been called smooth jazz, which nowhere near does the music justice. It’s way deeper than that, there is a really cool funk undertone to a lot of the tracks. Musically, it’s all about the groove and the swing so Donald can weave his vocals that intertwine beautifully. My favourite tracks are Babylon Sisters, Glamour Profession, and Time Out Of Mind as that’s where everything clicks together for me.

8/10 from The Grooveman.