Band: Bluestone

Title: Deliverance At The Crossroads

Year: 2019

Label: Grooveyard Records

After luring us in with a soft intro, Blindstone kicks the door in with a fat boot in the form of the best heavy riff of the day! Hell yeah!! Guitarist and singer Martin J. Andersen is a true master of heavy, fat and groovy riffs, who never disappoints! There’s an aura of Frank Marino hanging over his style and playing, but firmly anchored with a led sinker. It’s so heavy, groovy and funky you can’t help yourself from getting lost in the swing. Outstandingly great! At times, like in “One Beautiful Tribe” it’s heavy as a steamroller, while tracks like “Groove Nation” leans on a funky groove. A bit of Hendrix meets Marino, with a super fat production. Serious goosebumps! This also applies to Martin’s guitar playing in the bluesy ballad which gives the album its title. “Shouting From The Rooftops” is among the grooviest heavy funk rocker I’ve heard in years! Damn, what a track!! A song that sticks out a bit and brings Martin’s solo album to mind, is the instrumental track “Olympus”, a five minute orgy of brutal guitar riffs and solos. The semi-ballad “Another Day” is also a bit different in its approach. Beatlesque guitars and a surprisingly “modern” chorus. Also the finishing track, “Dove”, breaks new ground. A fantastic acoustic ballad, which is electrified halfway through and makes for a nice finish. Blindstone has never disappointed and if someone would ask which album I would recommend, I’d say – ALL!

Janne Stark

Ulrich Ellison - Dreaming In The House Of Blues (CD)

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Ulrich is a new musical acquaintance. Opener America reminds me a bit of Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush at times, which is a good sign. Ulrich provides some quite clean and melodic vocals, while the guitar work is a bit dirtier. Ten Feet Tall continues in a melodic southern rock vein, while River Of Life again adds a touch of Marino mixed with some slight Eric Johnson:ish influences. He continues down the blues rock path and lays down some serious blues licks in the intro of Running On Empty. I Had A Dream is a soul oriented thing with a jazzy touch, which doesn't really grab me, unfortunately. Rollin' And Tumblin' gets the boat cruising in the right direction again. Ulrich gives it a cool groovy, almost folksy touch. Feeling Like A Rich Man again veers off into a soul oriented funky area outside my sphere. The album has a few of these road bumps, especially towards the end, but the majority of the tracks nicely rock my boat. There are some seriously cool riffing going on in a lot of the tracks. 

Janne Stark
Label: Grooveyard
Year: 2017
Country: USA

Blindstone - The Seventh Cycle of Eternity (CD)

Danish power trio Blindstone continue their relentless journey in the sign of the mighty riff on this their seventh musical journey. This time around the band has gone through a change in personnel, introducing drummer Sigurd Jønk Jensen, replacing Anders Hvidfeldt. Anders did an outstanding job, but it feels Sigurd is switching the Blindstone drum department up yet another notch. He actually gets to show his skills already in the thundering opening track Dead Man's Blues, a heavy blues rocker, true to the Blindstone trademark. Guitarist/singer Martin J Andersen lets his guitar speak loudly all over the track, riffing, soloing and filling every crack and crevice with a tasteful bit of wah-ornamented guitar magic. Rolling switches into low gear and offers some crude and fat bass riffing from Jesper Bunk. Man, this is one steamroller of a track! Rebel In Black offers some nice dynamics with a cool verse and slow pace riffing. The backbeat bluesy On My Way offers a change in pace and sound with some (I presume) neck pick-up Strat riffing. One thing I actually do feel has changed a bit, is I don't (so far) hear as much Frank Marino influences, apart from Martin's similar vocal range and style. Ok, Looking Back, a beautiful ballad, does have a touch of Marino mixed with Trower, which is top notch in my book. Martin also stays away from the wah in this one and the solos are just out of this world in tone, clarity, feel, presence and tastefulness. Frickin' outstanding! The oddly title By The Suns Of Warvan, You Shall Be Avenged is a cool heavy riff-oriented instrumental with a strong feel of early Satriani. Wish Satch, whom I'm truly a huge fan of, would record a song like this today. Multi-facetted, melodic and un-shredding, still with truly impressive guitar work. Thunder From The North continues with some heavy guitar chugging and a surprisingly hooky and melodic pre-chorus. A great track, indeed! A Love Manifesto continues in the vein of its predecessor, but still with a totally different approach. Heavy, break-filled verse leaving lots of space for highly personal Martin's low-key vocals that fit so well with this type of music. It also offers another dose of killer solos. Stonesnake opens with some busy drumming and continues in a up-tempo boogie:ish vein, suddenly switching down to half speed in the verse. Killer track! Once again the band moves into the grinding, steamroller heavy-as-lead territory with Once You See The Signs. A crusher! Another cool surprise now comes in the form of Hendrix penned Power of Soul, a heavy blues rocker that has been given the proper Blindstone treatment. All in all, yet another top notch release from the Danes. Seven albums and not a single let-down. Impressive!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard

Year: 2016

Country: Denmark

John Norum - Play Yard Blues (CD)

Talk about a CD with postponed release date, almost competing with Guns ’N Roses ”Chinese Democracy”! The big difference is however that this one was really worth waiting for! When I did a gear-interview with John, at the time the new Europe album was released, he revealed his new solo album would be of the ”bluesier kind”. His last solo album ”Optimus” was more in the same vein as Europe’s reunion-platter with detuned riffs and a more modern approach, an album that didn’t fully hit home with me.

Ok, John, all is now forgiven; ”Play Yard Blues” is the album we (at least I) have been longing for. Here he shows his love for the seventies, both in his own songs and in his interpretations of Frank Marino’s ”Ditch Queen”, Mountain’s ”Travellin’ In The Dark” and Thin Lizzy’s outstanding ”It’s Only Money”. If we start with the cover songs, he hasn’t strayed away too much from the original versions. For example in ”Ditch Queen” he sounds very much like Frank both in his vocals approach and in his lead guitar playing. The influences really shine through. The opening track of the album, “Let It Shine”, also could have been penned by said Marino with its heavy and slightly funky verse riff. If John had to hold back on his solos on the Europe album, he’s really compensated it here. I’m not saying he’s over-playing, but where there’s place for a nice lick, he sure doesn’t rob us of the moment. In “Red Light Green High” he also shows a slightly cooler side, which made me think of bassist Tomas Torberg’s ordinary band Plankton. Norum also sings really laid back and nice on this one, something he also does in “Over And Done”, which stylewise made me think of some of Glenn Hughe’s better solo albums.

A singer John has used on some of his earlier recordings is Leif Sundin, a sadly rarely heard killer vocalist these days. Here he puts his vocal flair on the classic hard rocker “Got My Eyes On You” and the CD’s heaviest and most modern sounding track “Born Again”, the only track with detuned guitars. It however doesn’t stick out in a negative way, but more completes a great collection of tracks. The album ends with the title track that, as the title may suggest, is a play yard for guitarist, an instrumental improvisation number in the sign of blues with Europe colleague Mic Michaeli adding some nice Hammond organ to the brew. I’d also like to give some praise to John’s tasty rhythm boys, the outstandingly groovy Tomas Broman on drums and the aforementioned Plankton bassist Torberg, not forgetting percussionist Peer Stappe. These guys really put the swagger in On-mode in this killer retro-journey. Hats off to a first-rate craft and an album that has found its way nicely into my car stereo and will surely stay there for a long time ahead.

Janne Stark

Genre: Seventies hard rock

Year: 2010

Label: Mascot Reacords