Review: The Reverend Shawn Amos – Hollywood Blues
The Reverend Shawn Amos – Hollywood Blues
Format: CD – Digital / Label: Immediate Family Records
Release: 2022
Tekst: Bert van Kessel
Toen Shawn Amos terugkeek op grofweg twee decennia in de muziek, realiseerde hij zich dat zijn beste werk altijd verbonden is met zijn familie en zijn identiteit als een zwarte man. Dit besef leidde ertoe dat…
A bright constellation of musicians - including a Foo, a Beatle, an Eagle, two Doobies and two Allman Brothers not named Allman - came together to help Edgar Winter pay sonic tribute to his Brother Johnny.
Because of circumstances, the LP’s biggest news is Taylor Hawkins’ first posthumous release in the form of “Guess I’ll go Away,” one of 17 tracks written or recorded by the elder Winter, who died in 2014.
With so many guests, Brother Johnny is a mixed bag, one that finds Joe Walsh and David Grissom doing cheeky damage to “Johnny B. Goode” and Kenny Wayne Shepherd and John McFee making a mockery of “Highway 61 Revisited.” “Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo” (Toto’s Steve Lukather) and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (Bon Jovi’s Phil X), fare similarly as the singers try to sound cool and youthful and come off as inadvertent goofballs.
At its best, Brother Johnny shuns histrionics and lets the guests shine. These are moments when Keb’ Mo’ visits the Delta on “Lone Star Blues;” Walsh and Ringo Starr put Michael McDonald’s soulful voice in a new musical setting on “Stranger;” Warren Haynes reconfirms why he is among one of the great living interpreters on “Memory Pain;” and Bobby Rush tries to be no one but himself on “Got My Mojo Workin’.”
Derek Trucks, Joe Bonamassa and Doyle Bramhall II are among the other musicians who make their cameos count. And while Brother Johnny is an unmistakably loving tribute from brother Edgar, it’s a wildly inconsistent album few listeners are likely to enjoy straight through.
Oh beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife
Who more than self, their country loved
And mercy more than life
America, America may God thy gold refine
'Til all success be nobleness
And every gain divined
Darren Criss performs "All You Need Is Love", "Don't Stop Me Know" & later joins Keb Mo, Mickey Guyton, Emily Bear, Loren Allred, Chita Rivera, Rachel Platten, Andy Grammer and Gloria Gaynor onstage to perform "America The Beautiful" at the PBS's A Capitol Fourth, America's Independence Day Celebration on July 4th, 2022 in Washington DC, USA
Review: Edgar Winter – Brother Johnny
Edgar Winter – Brother Johnny
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: Quarto Valley Records
Release: 2022
Tekst: Gerrit Schinkel
Het is op 16 juli a.s. acht jaar geleden dat de op 23 februari 1944 in Beaumont, Texas, geboren bluesgitarist en -zanger Johnny Winter vier dagen na een optreden op het Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Zwitserland,…