Gary Douglas Band ~ Deep In The Water

 

This glorious CD gave me a nice variety of music, all in 1 CD. Starting off with a nice Country type rock song, starting with a pop rock sound. This band could be the next Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, without Bruce’s gruff voice that we’ve all come to love. Singing songs about the typical American life, including holding on to things. “Million Miles Away” slows it down a bit, while giving us a nice short sax solo. The song seems to be, as the title suggests, feeling like being a million miles away. The music is right on target with each song. The voice, while it is good, sometimes throws me off. The song writing is solid. “Oh My Oh My” is a nice upbeat song about money with a great chorus. “Devil In Her Soul” brings about another song about a woman who’s going to bring trouble to anyone who is with her. There are 11 great songs on this album. Some are stronger than others but all are good. I would give this 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars.

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Various Artists ~ A Life In YES: A Tribute To Chris Squire

 

How can you say anything negative about YES? You can’t. ‘Nuff said. Now, let’s get on with this review. 12 songs are on this tribute to one of the great bass players of all time…Chris Squire. The first song starts off with 2 YES members (at one time or another). Jon Davison & Patrick Moraz start off with “On The Silent Wings Of Freedom”. Next up, we have Steve Hogarth (Marillion) & Larry Fast (Peter Gabriel) doing a nice version of “Hold Up Your Hand” from Chris’s solo album “Fish Out Of Water”. Annie Haslem (Renaissance) brings another YES song to a different level with “Onward”, as she did previously with “Turn Of The Century” with Steve Howe. David Sancious (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) & Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) do a sweet, but, shorter version of “South Side Of The Sky”. Billy Sherwood, currently taking Mr. Squire’s spot in YES, with Chris’s blessing, does his version of “The Fish”. I love Billy Sherwood’s other work, but, wasn’t overly impressed with this one. 2 great musicians Steve Porcaro (Toto) & Steve Hackett (Genesis) do their version of “The More We Live  – Let Go” which doesn’t have that Billy Sherwood sound that I had first heard in YES. Jon Davison  & Tony Kaye (again, both YES members) do “Parallels”. While Tony Kaye is no Rick Wakeman, he pulls this off with style. Nikki Squire (Esquire & ex-wife of Chris) & Dweezil Zappa take on “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”. Todd Rundgren, John Wesley & Tony Kaye cover “Roundabout”. Candice Knight (Blackmore’s Night) & Brian Auger (Oblivion Express) do a nice version of “Don’t Kill The Whale”. There are 2 extra bonus tracks, 1 from The Prog Collective & Chris Squire, himself doing a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” from the album “Back Against The Wall”, a tribute album for Pink Floyd. I really enjoyed this album, although, at times, I thought that I had heard some of these versions of these songs, but, I could be wrong. Either way, as a tribute to Chris Squire, Billy Sherwood did a bang up job with this & a lot of help with all of the artists on this album. I give this 5 out of 5 Music Guru Stars.

The Sea Within

 

This band, which does not wish to be called a super group, has made a fantastic album. Why doesn’t the band want to be called a super group? With Roine Stolt, Jonas Reingold, Tom Brislin, Marco Minnemann & Daniel Gildenlow, what else would you call them? They prefer that they be called an Amagamation of serious talent. Both Roine Stolt & Jonas Reingold, both from the Flower Kings, Tom Brislin from Renaissance, Marco Minnemann from The Aristocrats & Daniel Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation, put together this band which really is a progressive rock band, although they don’t really classify themselves as just a progressive rock band either. There are a couple of guests on this album, such as Jon Anderson, Jordan Rudess & Rob Townsend. Casey McPhearson will be taking on the vocals for the live tour, as Daniel is tied up with Pain of Salvation. Casey is a member as well on this album. The music, as you would surmise is fantastic & the vocals are good on some tracks, but not great on others. Even after stating this, I can listen to this album over & over again. I expect that this will be on my best of 2018 list. Please give this a listen & let me know what you think. This is 2 CD’s. Favorite songs are “The Void” & the epic track “Broken Cord”. Most of the songs are within a 5 minute span, but this one (Broken Cord) spans over 14 minutes.  I give this 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.

Oak ~ False Memory Archive

 

This Norwegian Alternative Progressive Rock band, is a fairly new band, going back to 2013. The band started out from 2 different bands (Airbag, Bjorn Riis), similar to CSN, Asia, etc. The sound of the band reminds me of a cross between Porcupine Tree & the Cure. The music is very laid back similar to both of those bands, using electronics to create quite a bit of their sound. It does have some longer songs, but quite a few short ones as well. Best song on the album is “False Memory Archive”, which is also the name of the album. It had a bit more of an upbeat feel to it, versus the rest of the album. I give this 3.5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.

Peter Banks ~ The Self Contained Trilogy

 

A new (in 1993) compilation from Peter Banks, former member of YES, using just an Ibanez electric guitar. This has bits of Prog Rock, a bit of jazz, & even new-age. Peter deliberately did not write any vocals for this trilogy. The music does have some high points & some low points. There is some minor talking throughout some of the recording, which did take some of the joy out of this, however, sometimes the music did just take me away. This takes 3 albums & puts them together as 1 3 CD boxset. Mr. Banks does know his way around a guitar. I would not say that this is for everyone, but, if you like any of the 3 genres listed above, I think that you’ll like it. For me, I give it 3.5 Music Guru stars.

Various Artists ~ Bongo Boy Records Volume XV

 

The more I hear from this label, the more that I like. Volume XV doesn’t have a genre, it really goes all over the place. From Pop to R & B to Country to Rock & everything in between. The ozpening song titled “Truck Stop” by the Oohz seems to start this compilation off well. A good rocker was “Dumb” by Above The Sun. “Baby I’m Afraid” by Bobby Rue didn’t really work for me lyrically, but the music was really good. There were quite a few female lead singers on this compilation. Most of them were really good. Each volume’s production seems to get better as well. There may be some that are not as good as others, production wise, but, they still work well. I give this 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars.

Innerwish ~ Inner Strength (Re-Issue)

 

Although this album was released originally in 2006, 2018 brings a new release of their 2006 release. Innerwish is a metal band, with strong guitar work, good drumming & pleasant vocals. The bass & keyboards mostly remain in the background. This release reminds me of bands like White Snake or Dokken. The lead guitar work is a bit more flared up. The vocals for me could use a little more high end, but, it works very well. “Feel The Magic” & especially “Never Let You Down” are great Power Metal ballads. You know that any band that seems to sound like they came out in the 1980’s (which they are not) have to have at least 1 ballad on their album. Good music, & recommended with 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.