THE BROS LANDRETH -

COME MORNING

(Birthday Cake) 10/10

Hankering for new songs that blend

Americana (folk to roots rock) and soul?

This might be the album of the year for you then, as The Bros Landreth are back with 10 songs rich in atmosphere, taste and musical craftsmanship. Joey Landreth is the singer and lead guitarist with brother David on bass, and this is their seventh album. While the songs have an evergreen vibe the production is savvy to modern trends - there’s an intimate dryness for many instruments, like you’re in the room with the band. Joey’s tasteful guitar work is worth highlighting - he favours open C tuning and a slide on his fourth finger, enticing soulful and rootsy playing. He also has a cool pedal collection that creates lots of colours; his looping for ambient harmonic settings is very creative. As for the songs, there are many standouts - opener Stay has a super dry sound, and it’s catchy too. What In The World is emotive (the guitar arrangement is rich). Drive All Night demands to be a single, while Shame is beautifully rootsy. You Don’t Know Me is very intimate with that lovely C tuning taking centre stage. Don’t Feel Like Crying is another single contender with beautiful vocals; the rhythmic drag of Corduroy, the sparse chord changes and the ambient piano contextualise Joey’s vocals exquisitely. In short, a corker of an album requiring many listens! [JS]

performance, the bossa nova vibe clearly inspiring the lines of Sheryl Bailey and Ed Cherry. Noshufuru has a lot of bite as Rezz Abbasi and Jeff Miles burn and fly, inspired by Martino’s composition and fluid chops. Russell Malone performs Lament on solo guitar with much taste (and precise harmonics). Joyous Lake shows Nir Felder and Oz Noy enjoying Martino’s open harmonies with their Fender Strats. In short, it’s a great collaborative album to honour one of jazz’s master musicians. [JS] (see it, it’s extraordinarily inspiring). As for their music, powerful riff driven metal is the focus featuring Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow on both guitar and vocals with the band’s 40-years-plus co-founder, Robb Reiner on drums. The 14 tracks were written during lockdown (one track’s called Lockdown) and show the band can rock hard with huge drums and guitar parts that chug and wail. Opener Take A Lesson segways from a Dave Grohl spoken intro to a pounding doom riff (think Ozzy meets Alice Cooper). Ghost Shadow is uptempo and exclamatory. Another Gun Fight has vigour and stomp. There are two instrumentals; Teabag has a pulverising swing feel with great bluesy lead licks (blistering bass breaks too) and Gomez takes the same riff but adds horns. Long may Anvil continue! [JS]