At Home in Hespeler

Sammy Hagar and the Circle, featuring Hagar, his old pal Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, Led Zeppelin’s Jason Bonham, and guitarist Vic Johnson take a roll through Hagar’s career, with some Led Zeppelin added in for good measure, in the new live album At Your Service. Recorded at various shows during last years fall tour, At Your Service covers Hagar’s solo material, his Montrose years as well as 80’s era Van Halen (in a nod to both Hagar and Anthony).

The Circle is a band of solid professionals who all know their business. There is nothing here that’s not very well done. Whatever era of Hagar – or Led Zeppelin – you are a fan of, you will be pleased by the performances of those songs. There is no weak points or performances here.

The album features four Led Zeppelin songs, and aside from Good Times Bad Times having a bit of an 80’s feel to it, they are performed excellently. Hagar is, perhaps a bit surprisingly, a good singer of Led Zeppelin.

The highlight of the album however is the final track, when Hagar and Johnson take a seat for an acoustic arrangement of Van Halen’s Dreams, from 5150. Stripped of Eddie Van Halen’s keyboards and pyrotechnic guitar licks, it’s an extremely pretty song.

Sammy Hagar and the Circle’s At Your Service is a very enjoyable live recording that is both worth having and makes you hope this particular lineup continues to tour, and that they come to a town near me soon.

Tracklist

CD 1

1. There’s Only One Way to Rock
2. Rock Candy
3. Good Times Bad Times
4. Poundcake
5. I Can’t Drive ’55
6. Mikey Bass Solo
7. When It’s Love
8. Whole Lotta Love
9. Little White Lie
10. When the Levee Breaks

CD 2

11. Jason Drum Solo/Moby Dick
12. Why Can’t This Be Love
13. Finish What You Started
14. Heavy Metal
15. Vic Guitar Solo
16. Best of Both Worlds
17. Right Now
18. Rock and Roll
19. Dreams (acoustic)

for certified professional guitar repair in Cambridge Ontario: Brian Gardiner Guitar Repair

Review, The Mighty Zep At Your Service, Dreams, Good Times Bad Times, Jason Bonham, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, The Circle

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience singer James Dylan is, by day, an artist. Last year at this time, James offered a pencil drawing of Robert Plant. This year, he turned his hand to John Bonham. 

These pencil drawing look incredibly like photographs, and lend credence to the idea that James is as good an artist, if not better, than singer. No small praise that.

Cost of the pictures is $95 for a 9 x 13 print signed by Dylan or $65 for a 6.5 x 10 signed print (plus shipping) and can be ordered from JamesDylanOfficial.com. There appears to be Robert Plant prints still available too.

Last year the original pencil drawing was also made available for $2,000 (plus S & H). No word on whether the original is available this time.

via Ramble On Radio, the only Led Zeppelin Podcast.

The Mighty Zep James Dylan, Jason Bonham, John Bonham, Led Zeppelin Experience, Robert Plant

Copyright Brian Gardiner 2011. Use by permission only

Picture of the Day, The Mighty Zep Jason Bonham

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

Last year Bob Seger suggested on a Detroit radio show that a fall tour was in the works. The fall shows never happened, apparently because Seger put the kibosh on them at the last minute. This year he surprised his people by telling them, reschedule for the spring.

Seger will be hitting select venues in select cities with the Silver Bullet Band, working 30 – 40 dates around drummer Don Brewer’s schedule. Reportedly he will be playing classic Bob Seger music as well as songs from a new, unreleased, unfinished album.

When Bob Seger hit’s the stage, he should take to heart the warning that Jimmy Buffet provides: Buffet was unconscious for ten minutes and spent a couple of days in hospital after falling off the stage in Sydney Australia this week.

Buffet stepped to the front of the stage at the Hordern Pavilion and misjudged where the stage ended, falling 30 feet to the concrete floor below. No word on whether the little birdies circling Buffets head were flying clockwise or anti-clockwise

Rock star rumble: In an article in Rolling Stone a few weeks ago, Robert Plant, justifying his choice to make mediocre adult contemporary instead of reuniting with his old mates, Led Zeppelin, said:

There’s nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts, people who have written their story… I don’t deal in that, and I don’t deal in people who deal in that.

Who could he be calling out here? I’m sure we could all think of a few names, but Alice Cooper wouldn’t have been one.

None the less, step right up, Alice Cooper:

Jimmy Page wants to do it. John Paul Jones wants to do it. And they got Bonham’s son, who is a killer drummer. All they need is Robert Plant. But what is Robert Plant out there doing? Playing folk music! What is he doing?

Careful Robert, he’s got a snake.

Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was sentenced to 15 days house arrest Wednesday after pleading guilty to DUI. He was arrested for driving his Lamborghini 60MPH in a 40 zone in Los Vegas last June, and found to be over the legal alcohol limit. And Wednesday was a good day for Neil this week.

By Friday, reports had surfaced that Neil is being investigated for up to $1Million tax evasion.

Tax evasion is no 60 in a 40 zone, as Wesley Snipes can testify.

Not a rock star, but Charlie Sheen think he is one. This week Sheen went on yet another bender, this one ending with TV’s highest paid actor in the hospital. Very Rock Star.

His hospital stay is being reported as a hernia, which is, alas, very not rock star. Sorry Charlie.

She may not be a rock star, but she plays the daughter of one on TV. And now, for the second year running, Miley Cyrus is listed as AOL’s JSYK.com’s “worst celebrity influence.”

See Charlie, that’s how Rock Stars do it.

Fluffernutter, Rockin' and Rollin' and Never Forgettin' Alice Cooper, Australia, Bob Seger, Charlie Sheen, Jason Bonham, Jimmy Buffet, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, Miley Cyrus, Motley Crue, Robert Plant, Silver Bullet Band, Vince Neil, Wesley Snipes

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