New Music

How It Feels To Fly

TBlue Rose exan David Grissom may be an eternal sideman, but he continues as a Lone Star with this fourth solo album full of gutpunching riffery and inimitable gasoline-fuelled solos

Despite making his name as a sideman for everyone from John Mellencamp to the Allman Brothers, Grissom lays down finessed yet granite-hard riffs with a lead style that fuses blues, rock, country and jazz with a sleight of hand that’ll leave you scratching your head in disbelief. This is his fourth solo record, produced and recorded at his home Spicewood Studios, and it plays to his strengths – massive guitar tones and widescreen fretboard excursions – over a set of serviceable, genrebound rockers.

Opener Bringin’Sunday Mornin’ToSaturdayNight lays down the marker, with a stereotracked riff that’s greasier than Billy Gibbons’ beard at an All-UCan-Eat rib restaurant. The title track, driven along by a Won’tGet FooledAgain- esque pinched rhythm motif, wouldn’t seem out of place on an 80s Cherry Coke ad, and NeverCameEasyToMe is drop D-tuned acoustic, blue-collar Americana.

WayJose is the standout: a mercurial instrumental veering from jazz to Santanaesque breakdowns and Texan blues, it shows off the band’s improvisational flair, with skilful chord work and organ interplay. Some of it doesn’t travel well across the Atlantic, though: GiftOfDesperation’s Tom Pettyesque emoting may pass the time on an interstate haul, but probably won’t be as effective soundtracking a traffic jam on the outskirts of Slough.

The album closes with half an hour of live tracks from Grissom’s weekly slot at Austin’s Saxon Pub with the band he used for the record. A nine-minute rendition of Jessica and his own WayDown Deep and FlimFlam see Grissom tearing every last ounce of tone from his PRS DGT, before ending with a beefy cover of ZZ Top’s NastyDogsAndFunkyKings.

Grissom creates huge overdriven soundscapes by using open strings as pedal notes. Each crunchy lead line showcases the incredible control in his pick-andfingers-based technique; and this outing has enough killer guitar to prove that, like his fellow Texan Eric Johnson, Grissom is a bona fide guitarist’s guitarist. [BW] Standout track: WayJose For Fans Of: Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Eric Johnson