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BLONDE AMBITION
BO RAMSEY/Fragile: Taking only two years between albums under his own name this time around, the Americana great serves up the set that fans have probably been waiting for him to make under his own name for a long time. Not content to be just another sku for fans to collect, this set reaps the sum total of his work for high profile folkies and others over the last 20 years. With a well lived in feel and chops that run deep, Ramsey’s heartland Americana is the kick in the pants the genre has been asking for lately. Just in time and right on the money.
(Bo Ramsey Records)
HEAVY HITTER
EKOTREN/Light the Fire: Named after a painkiller but varied just enough not to get their asses kicked over trademark infringement, these hard working Florida lads have been at it a good 7 years, plying their melodic metal to the underground anywhere there are ears to listen. Even though the genre has seen better days, if the hammers of the gods wish to swing any justice, the genre will get a second wind to accommodate these guys getting their break and chance to break out. Well polished, well practiced and certainly road tested, this crew has all the right moves yet isn’t to jaded to still put their passion first. This could easily be the next sound of the suburbs.
(Blind Prophecy)
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
POUYA MAHMOODI/Mehr: We don’t know anything about geopolitics but we do know that after the fall of Russia, the labels paid a lot of lip service to Russian rock bands who seemed to all have bad haircuts and play rock in a way that was slightly off to our ears. Sure, we gave them credit for knowing that America rocks and we had it going on, but we still didn’t care for their sound. Mahmoodi is from Iran. While our global politics knowledge is still in the same dumper it was back then, we recognize the heady stuff going on with a cat that plays 10 string guitar and has a thing for our fusion from before he was born that runs so deep that he got Billy Cobham to guest and add some Mahavishnu flavor to the set. There’s a bunch of East/East/West fusion propelling things and since fusion wasn’t as mainstream as rock, this pretty much pursues and different vibe and different tangent than the Russians of a generation ago. In fact, his world jazz rocks. Mahmoodi has some serious chops and knows how to hit the sweet spot for guitar fans.
(Faryaad)
Volume 31/Number 74
January 13, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
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