Dirty Dave Osti – Midnight Mojo Man (CD)

Dirty Dave Osti has four more CDs out on Grooveyard Records and they’ve all been pretty solid in my book. For some reason this one really hit home with me. Not sure what it is, but the riffs seem more solid and I like the groove a bit more. Stylewise, Dave, reminds me a bit of Michael Katon. Solid, heavy, guitar driven blues rock with both feet deep in the ground. “Be The Love” has a really cool 70s sounding classic riff that carries the song. The only thing that pissed me off was that Dave recorded an outstanding cover of “Walk Before You Run” by Savoy Brown. Why? Because I had planned to record it. Love that sone. But, since you did such a kick-ass version, you’re forgiven, Dave ;-). Another outstanding favorite track on this album is “Rebel Run”, a kick-ass riff rocker with some killer drumming. The instrumental “Spacewolf” sticks out a bit as well with its cool funky groove. All in all, a really solid album that should attract fans of classic, riff-oriented hard edged blues rock.

Janne Stark

Year: 2018

Country: USA

Label: Grooveyard Records

Dirty Dave Osti - Rare Tracks (CD)

Dirty Dave has previously released a couple of really great blues rock albums, so what good would actually a "rare tracks" compilation do? Well, quite a lot it seems. Rare Tracks proves to be a damn fine "could easily have been a legit" album. Consistent in both sound and style. It kicks off with the instrumental blues rocker Grooveyard Ride followed by the southern rock sounding Louisiana Outlaw with a bunch of cool slide licks and fitting raspy vocals. Blur The Lines kicks it into riff mode, with some cool bluesy sections. In The Wind kicks it up a notch in tempo, but both the riffs and the blues are still there. A cool instrumental tune, where my only critique would be that it actually does lack some vocals in the empty spots. Bastard is a cool acoustic number leading into another cool bluesy melodic semi-ballad. Up next is a kick-ass cover of ZZ Top's El Diablo, from the sadly overlooked Tejas album. Without going into each track, let me just say, even though this is "just" a compilation of leftover tracks, it's a damn good one!
Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records
Country: USA
Year: 2017