At Home in Hespeler

One likes to believe in the freedom of music.

Rush – Spirit of Radio.

A random thought passes as I listen to Black Country Communion’s new album Afterglow: with the recent bad blood between bassist Glenn Hughes and guitarist Joe Bonamassa, if Bonamassa was on fire, would Hughes put him out?
Answer, not on Afterglow he doesn’t.
Throughout the band’s third studio album in as many years, Bonamassa’s playing is smoking: Big Train’s wah-wah infused rave up; the white hot solos on Midnight Sun and The Giver; the guitar intro to Midnight Sun; or the slow burning slide on Cry Freedom. Bonamassa lights the album up with his best playing to date with this band. Hughes response is to fuel the flames with a collection of songs of great licks and words that twist and turn, offer loud and soft (light and shade?) moments throughout.

If, as has been allowed as possible through various media outlets, this is the end of the line for Black Country Communion, it will prove to be a great pity. On reviewing their first album, I offered a number of times their influences came to the top, on their second album, I noted less of this. On this album, they sound from start to finish uniquely like themselves. Hey are a band that has found an identity. Moments like the dual Hughes/Bonamassa vocals on Cry Freedom or the tight, super-funky groove Hughes and drummer Jason Bonaham get on the Bonham penned piece Common Man sound like Black Country Communion and no one else.

You can’t talk about Afterglow without also mentioning Derek Sherinian, who takes a greater role than the first two albums, playing a couple of organ solos that are exceptional. His playing throughout is top notch.
Black Country Communion’s Afterglow, which was released Tuesday, is a great rock and roll album that will improve with time and listenings. It is what these guys do best, flat out rock.

The Freedom of Music, This Week on my I-Pod Afterglow, Black Country Communion, Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

Anne Hathaway has tied the knot, marrying her man of more than four years, Adam Shulman, in a sunset wedding at Big Sur, California last Saturday.

Hathaway wore Valentino and when the minister asked if anybody had any reason to object to the marriage, the FBI did not stand up.

Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill also stepped across the aisle this weekend, marrying model Martha Patterson. The Leonic King and the bikini beauty hitched up in a rustic ceremony in Charlotte, Tennessee.

No word on whether there was a fireplace.

Returning to our regular programming, Lindsay Lohan was assaulted in her hotel room last weekend.

Lohan invited Christian LaBella back to her room after partying at 1 Oak Saturday night. She then discovered a number of pictures of her on his phone, and confronted him about the pictures. He attacked, and Lindsay pulled the fire alarm to bring in the police. Lohan received minor scratches and turned down medical help and LaBella was charged with 2 counts of assault and 2 counts of harassment.

While Lohan is the victim in this story, I’m reminded of Glenn Hughes response to being punched by a roadie in a hotel elevator in the wee hours:

“Normal people don’t get beaten up in hotels at four in the morning.”

Here’s a quiz. Pretend your a bookie, your job is to give out odds on events. There’s four people in a room, including Mariah Carey. One of those four people has a complete diva-like meltdown. What are the odds the meltdown was someone other than Carey?

Well, get ready to pay Mr. Vegas. TMZ posted video of American Idol tryouts from Charlotte. This year judges, in case you have a modicum of taste and simply don’t know or care, are Randy Jackson, Keith Urban, Nicki Manaj and Carey. In the video, Manaj is going completely off the handle, shouting and swearing at Carey: “I told them, I’m not fuckin’ putting up with her fuckin’ highness over there.”

Carey apparently argued back, with Urban, physically between the two, tried to calm things down.

Nicki Manaj with a superiority complex: now I’ve heard everything.

Fluffernutter Anne Hathaway, Christian LaBella, Glenn Hughes, Jared Followill, Keith Urban, Lindsay Lohan, Mariah Carey, Martha Patterson, Nicki Manaj, Randy Jackson

All the work of blogging occasionally pays off, and in most unexpected coin. Through another blog I keep up, Ramble On, I was advanced a copy of the new “supergroup” Black Country Communion’s debut CD. I’ve been listening for four days now, and absolutely love this CD.

My review is in. Be sure to read it all, but here’s some highlights:

I woke up this morning with a part of a song stuck in my head… It is the latter song I can’t shake today. Specifically, it is the part of the song when the band comes out of the chorus: they have built up to a great crescendo, Glenn Hughes voice straining, Marshalls at 11 and they transition to guitarist Joe Bonamassa coming in with a tasty little guitar lick, bringing the band back down a notch. It is such a sweet, melodic little line: one of those moments when the music seems to sigh…

Joe Bonamassa on guitar, Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals, Jason Bonham on drums and Derek Sherinian on keyboards. Each has an impressive pedigree, each shines in their own way on the debut, self titled, album. The rhythm section carry song after song with pounding regularity. Derek Sherinian offers subtle touches of 70’s era keyboards, adding ambiance and feel, never taking over. And Joe Bonamassa is brilliant, his licks imaginative without overplaying…

At 73 minutes long, it would be my normal MO to complain that Black Country Communion is too long, anything over standard LP length of 45 minutes being an extravagance…

… this would be the first album where I would be tempted to give five stars…

As it is, Black Country Communion is the best post-Zeppelin work of anyone associated with Led Zeppelin.

Black Country Communion will be released Tuesday Sept 21

Black Country Communion

1. Black Country 3:15
2. One Last Soul 3:52
3. The Great Divide 4:45
4. Down Again 5:45
5. Beggarman 4:51
6. Song of Yesterday 8:33
7. No Time 4:18
8. Medusa 6:56
9. The Revolution in Me 4:59
10. Stand (At The Burning Tree) 7:01
11. Sista Jane 6:54
12. Too Late For the Sun 11:21

Review, Rockin' and Rollin' and Never Forgettin' Black Country Communion, Derek Sherinian, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Joe Bonamassa, The Great Divide

I am really liking what I have been hearing of the new “Supergroup” Black Country Communion, with Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian, Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa. Their first single, One Last Soul, is available for free download on their website (use the promo code OLS2010). It is excellent.

Then last week a video of them “recording,” The Great Divide, was released. Lets call it an easy 2 for 2:

In July 1966, myself, my brother and my mother jumped on a puddle hopper from Ireland to Scotland, and from Scotland came to Canada, where my father had arrived, found a job and set up a home three months earlier. The story is a family legend: mom almost didn’t come. Husband or no husband, Ireland was home. Standing at the airport,  surrounded by family, she was having doubts. Then my grandfather took me by the hand and led my brother and myself to the plane. Dazed, mom followed us kids. My energetic brother, and me, dragging a teddy bear almost as big as me. A good story, a yarn, even perhaps. I have told the teddy bear story for years, and always wondered how accurate it was.

Last Friday, I found out. Not the day, not the event, but the very moment of my grandfather taking me to the plane was caught on film.  For the first time in my life, 43 years later, I saw this picture last week.

In case your wondering, the Teddy Bear is still around: both of my kids played with it. He lives at my mother in laws place, along with all the grandkids favourite stuffed animals.

Cool For Cats Black Country Communion, Derek Sherinian, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Joe Bonamassa, The Great Divide