Milk Crate Classic #4: Moxy II

Moxy is an relatively obscure name in Canadian music, but they needn't be. They once verged on greatness and, at a time just before an explosion of Canadian rock on the landscape, they produced a pair of great rock and roll albums. Moxy and Moxy II (known as the black and red albums respectively) were solid guitar rock albums that may be better than anything produced in the hard rock genre in Canada before or since.

Moxy II, released in 1976, contained nine tracks, a number of which belong on any album. The opening song 'Cause There's Another was probably the groups biggest hit, and a great song. It starts off in a very hard rock style, but quickly slips into acoustic guitar with melodic lead line combination that would have made April Wine proud, although it may be more reminiscent of Teenage Head's Something On My Mind (or rather, Teenage Heads... would be reminiscent of 'Cause There's Another).

There's an old saw in golf, "hit for show, putt for dough". A similar statement can be made in guitar - left hand for show, right for dough. The left hand is what people notice, the one that moves around and gets the credit, but any good guitarist can tell you, the musicality comes from the right hand. Sound, tone and rhythm are all products of the right. Listening to the acoustic guitar in 'Cause There's Another, there's some amazing stuff going on. Moxy have eschewed a basic little rhythm over something much more complex and interesting. It is musicality of the kind that moves the song from good to great, and sets the tone for a wonderful album.

Second song Take it or Leave it is solid 70's funk that predates Wild Cherry's Play that Funky Music and David Bowie's Fame, both of which sound as though they borrow from this. Take it or Leave it is, to my ear, however, superior to both those songs. Kids, this is what we danced to in the 70's and it was great dancing music.

While the albums best two songs are the first two, the rest of the album is good, very good. Through the Storm is very heavy and hard rock in the Spinal Tap vein; One More Heartbreak an up tempo rocker; Change In My Life a solid ballad laced with appregiating guitars and thick sound (Moxy was a two Les Paul band).

Lead singer Buzz Shearman would self destruct after this album, and would be replaced by Mike Reno, then known as Mike Renowski, now known as "the chubby guy who used to sing for Loverboy." They would never recapture being this good, and it's too bad: the Canadian rock and roll scene would explode within a couple of years, and if Moxy had held it together there's no reason to believe they wouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Rush, Triumph or Loverboy. A great band who never attained that greatness - too bad.

Milk Crate Classic #5: Moxy II

Moxy is an relatively obscure name in Canadian music, but they needn't be. They once verged on greatness and, at a time just before an explosion of Canadian rock on the landscape, they produced a pair of great rock and roll albums. Moxy and Moxy II (known as the black and red albums respectively) were solid guitar rock albums that may be better than anything produced in the hard rock genre in Canada before or since.

Moxy II, released in 1976, contained nine tracks, a number of which belong on any album. The opening song 'Cause There's Another was probably the groups biggest hit, and a great song. It starts off in a very hard rock style, but quickly slips into acoustic guitar with melodic lead line combination that would have made April Wine proud, although it may be more reminiscent of Teenage Head's Something On My Mind (or rather, Teenage Heads... would be reminiscent of 'Cause There's Another).

There's an old saw in golf, "hit for show, putt for dough". A similar statement can be made in guitar - left hand for show, right for dough. The left hand is what people notice, the one that moves around and gets the credit, but any good guitarist can tell you, the musicality comes from the right hand. Sound, tone and rhythm are all products of the right. Listening to the acoustic guitar in 'Cause There's Another, there's some amazing stuff going on. Moxy have eschewed a basic little rhythm over something much more complex and interesting. It is musicality of the kind that moves the song from good to great, and sets the tone for a wonderful album.

Second song Take it or Leave it is solid 70's funk that predates Wild Cherry's Play that Funky Music and David Bowie's Fame, both of which sound as though they borrow from this. Take it or Leave it is, to my ear, however, superior to both those songs. Kids, this is what we danced to in the 70's and it was great dancing music.

While the albums best two songs are the first two, the rest of the album is good, very good. Through the Storm is very heavy and hard rock in the Spinal Tap vein; One More Heartbreak an up tempo rocker; Change In My Life a solid ballad laced with appregiating guitars and thick sound (Moxy was a two Les Paul band).

Lead singer Buzz Shearman would self destruct after this album, and would be replaced by Mike Reno, then known as Mike Renowski, now known as "the chubby guy who used to sing for Loverboy." They would never recapture being this good, and it's too bad: the Canadian rock and roll scene would explode within a couple of years, and if Moxy had held it together there's no reason to believe they wouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Rush, Triumph or Loverboy. A great band who never attained that greatness - too bad.

CD Review: Bachman-Cummings Jukebox

Bachman Cummings new CD, Jukebox, hit the stores yesterday morning. The CD is a collection of older material, "a new album of old songs," songs that Messrs Bachman and Cummings would have heard on the jukeboxes in their youth. This is the music these two legends began their career playing, and the album pays homage to the songs they loved.

The concern when producing such an album is to pick the right songs, the songs that work best for your voice and band. Rush did an excellent job of this in their 2005 collection Feedback. It is also where Jukebox falls down.

Opening track , The Equals Baby Come Back, starts promising enough, with Bachman establishing a solid groove. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, Bachman also takes vocal duties. It is a weak effort, that Cummings almost certainly could have done much better. The song needed it.

Who do You Love fares better. Bachman's vocals are better suited, drummer Sean Fitzsimons takes the classic Bo Diddley rhythm to new heights, and the insertion of Bo Diddley and Don't Fade Away into the song is effective and fun.

Here's a quote from the liner notes:

To go through the Beatles songs and try to find one that hasn't been done and done adn done by eveybody was really hard.

Be that as it may, some songs stay Undone for a reason, and based on this jazzed up arrangement I'm Happy Just to dance With You, is one of them.

Whenever I hear a cover, whether a CD's worth or a single song, I'm looking for the band to own the song. Jimmy McCracklin's The Walk, is the first song on Jukebox that Bachman Cummings own. Not coincidentally, it's the first Cummings vocal vehicle. This version could be an original Burton Cummings song, which is what I'm looking for. The boys capture a great groove, and Cummings sings the song note perfect. Great rock and roll.

The same applies to Cliff Richard's Don't Talk to Him. A great rockabilly piece that, again, could be a Cummings original. In the liner notes Cummings writes that this is a tough song to sing and he was sweating it, but he did a great job, and it's a great piece.

The Shadows were Cliff Richards back up band, but they also had a string of instrumental hits on their own, and became highly influential in guitarist circles. Thankfully, their bad surf movie guitar songs went out of style 45 years ago. Sadly, Bachman resurrects "Man of Mystery" thus showing this style as worthy of going out of style.

Fats Domino's Ain't That just Like A Woman on the other hand sounds fresh and great. Cummings boogie-woogie piano and vocals make this sound fresh and new. And kudos to Bachman quoting Glenn Miller's Chatanooga Choo-Choo in his short solo.

If they were worried about using an overdone Beatles song, Chuck Berry's Little Queenie is a curious choice, considering how often it's been done, and better. Both Bob Seger and REO Speedwagon have live versions of this song that are great, giving new energy and life to Chuck Berry's classic boogie/blues playing. This version goes back to the Chuck Berry version, and suffers from a lack of that power and energy that others have found there.

Sam Cooke's Good Times is a great song that suffers, this time from Cummings vocal performance. Some songs just don't suit some singers, this is one that Cummings should have left off this album for that reason. Nicely done, just doesn't work here.

The surprise of the album is probably the downright punkish/Wild Thing version of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone, with Randy Bachman's best vocal performance of the album and a Neil Youngish solo.

John Fred and the Playboys' Judy in Diguise (With Glasses), is a classic R&B tune that here sounds great. Huey "Piano" Smith's Boogie Woogie Don't You Just Know It, is one of those 50's childish style tings, like Charlie Brown or See You Later Alligator. It sounds OK, but it should have stayed in the50's.

Georgie Fame's Yeh, Yeh is just a good old Rock and Roll song as is Edwin Starr's Agent Double-O Soul. Both songs sound good and are carried well.

The Box Tops' classic The Letter is given a BTO style rock up and works very well, as should be expected when Randy Bachman BTO's a song. IN fact, BTO demoed this song in 1971 , and released itin 1993 Anthology CD, and this version sounds more like BTO than the early BTO version did. Kudos again to drummer Sean Fitzsimons who gave some Robbie Bachman like tom-tom work to drive this song forward.

What a collection of 50's and 60's rock and roll songs would be without some Elvis, I don't know and fortunately, I don't have to find out quite yet. Ain't That loving You Baby is the kind of thing you expect on a tribute album by some guys who profess deep love for the music their doing - a song they sound like their having real fun playing. You can almost hear the swing in Burton Cummings hips, and Bachman gives some great rockabilly licks throughout. This is a real treat, sounding honestly like Elvis while giving a fresh modern sound.

The CD finishes with a cover of a song written by some guys called Bachman and Cummings. American Woman 2007 isn't really new, as this re-working was done for their last tour, and can be heard on the last years DVD "First Time Around." As well there is an acoustic version of the same arrangement floating around. None the less, this is a good work up of the song, it sounds great on Bachman's 57 Les Paul and it is interesting and new without hurting the original song. A great finish to a very good CD.

Overall, some performances here lacked, and some song choices where suspect, but this is a good CD. If you are a fan of Bachman Cummings, or of the old rock and roll, you probably want it.

4 out of 5

Bachman Cummings Jukebox Cover

Here's the cover for tomorrows Bachman Cummings CD, Jukebox.

Nickelback on the Walk of Fame

Congratulations to Nickelback, newest honorees of the Canadian Walk of Fame. The ceremony will take place tomorrow, June 9th at a gala hosted by Eugene Levy.

Other inductees at the gala will be actor Jill Hennessy, director Ivan Reitman and news-anchor Lloyd Robertson.

New Bachman Cummings

For those who find their way here looking for information on the new Bachman-Cummings album of cover songs, Jukebox, here's what I have:

The release date is apparently June 12th (next Tuesday). There will be a regular CD, and a deluxe CD/DVD. Here's a track listing:

1. Baby Come Back
2. Who Do You Love
3. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
4. The Walk
5. Don't Talk To Him
6. Man Of Mystery
7. Ain't That Just Like A Woman
8. Little Queenie
9. Good Times
10. Like A Rolling Stone
11. Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)
12. Don't You Just Know It
13. Yeh, Yeh
14. Agent Double-O Soul
15. The Letter
16. Ain't That Loving You Baby
17. American Woman 2007

I will offer a review at the first available opportunity. If the folks at Sony want to send me a copy, I will happily review it ahead of release, otherwise, you may have to wait a few days.

CD Review: Feist: The Reminder

Feist is a Canadian singer/songwriter with roots in both the east coast and the west, and the 2005 new artist of the year Juno winner. Her new album, The Reminder, is her third studio album, and first since the Juno winning Let it Die, was released yesterday. Recorded in a 200 year old Parisian manor, The Reminder has been called a "beautifully whimsical collection of luxuriant pop about love." So many adjectives, how did they miss eclectic?

Feist has one of those lovely soprano pop voices that works well in folksy acoustic artists. Fortunately, Feist doesn't contain her talent in folksy acoustic music. The second song I Feel It All, lets you know that. After the slow, breezy, jazzy So Sorry, I Feel It All comes on hard with a solid acoustic pop song. The acoustic is then eschewed altogether for the funky, bassy My Moon, My Man.

It is, actually, the fourth song by the time we get an acoustic song, the truly lovely The Park. With birds chirping in the background (real birds, by my understanding) this is a pretty ballad:

Why would he come back through the park
You thought that you saw him, but no you did not
It's not him coming across the sea to surprise you
Not him who would know where in London to find you

Sadness so real that it populates
The city and leaves you homeless again
Steam from a cup and snow on the path
The seasons have changed from the present to past

The past...
There's hope to have
In the past...

Lovelily poetic, beautifully sung and a simple guitar plus a spartan arrangement. The Park is a wonderful piece of music.

Feist follows up The Park with a slower, keyboard based ballad, The Water. And so it goes, another song, another tempo, another style: Nina Simone's Sea lion Woman has an African hand-clapping rhythm throughout; The lively, countried up, slide guitar based Past and Present; The Limit To Your Love, over arranged pop, lush, bold and gorgeous; The hit, 1234, pure pop wonderfully done.

Feist moves effortlessly through different styles and instrumentations handily each with confidence and skill. This is a lively, wonderful CD that should be on every music lovers list.

You can hear for yourself and sample before you buy at her myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/feist.

4 out of 5.

CD Review: Michael Bublé: Call Me Irresponsible

Burnaby singer Michael Bublé's 8th studio CD, Call Me Irresponsible, runs hot and cold. When he's doing what he does well, singing Jazz standards, it is a very good CD. When, however, he lets himself out of his element, the CD suffers. The opening track, The Best is Yet to Come, promises better but doesn't deliver, as this is probably the CD best track. Me and Mrs. Jones and I'm your Man are other early songs that work well.

It is when the title track, Call Me Irresponsible comes up that the CD starts to fall apart. Bublé doesn't, to my ear, take this standard seriously, singing what sounds like a smirking version of the Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen song. Bublé's good, but if Sinatra can take this song seriously, I fail to see how he's above the task.

Bublé follows up Call Me Irresponsible with a truly terrible duet of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight with Ivan Lins. It not only fails to deliver a reasonable accounting of an otherwise beautiful piece, but it also falls into, and out of, another language, presumably Lins' native Brazillian. Either way it's an abomination and drags the CD down terribly.

Again, follow up doesn't help, as Bublé follows Wonderful Tonight with another pop sounding piece, Everything. Rod Stewart proved that rockers should stay away from the crooner's songs, and Bublé returns the favour with these two songs: Crooners should stay away from Rock music (unless your name is Johnny Favourite).

He further proves the rule with a version of Always on my Mind that, while not bad, doesn't work all that well. However, that is followed up with the Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon song That's Life. It's the kind of light jazz standard that Bublé does so well, and it may save the CD, getting it back on track for the final three solid tracks.

Overall, this is not a bad CD, but some questionable choices leave it with a hole in the middle that would have been better served by songs more suitable to Bublé's voice and style.

3 out of 5

CD Review: Rush: Snakes and Arrows

Snakes and Arrows is Rush's eighteenth studio album, the first since 2002's Vapour Trails, and the first work from Rush since the Excellent 2004 EP of cover songs, Feedback. With Feedback, Rush went back to the very beginning, recording songs they played in their cover band days. Snakes and Arrows, has stylistically stayed with the old days, sounding more like Rush of the early 80's than anything of the near past.

The radio played Far Cry is the first single off the album, and is very traditional Rush sounding. Armour and Sword, the second piece, is wonderfully weaved around an acoustic verse, that reminisces of old Rush, but with a new flair. Workin' Them Angels could almost belong to the Fly By Night album and The Larger Bowl returns Lifeson to the acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitars run throughout this album, giving it a warmth that other Rush efforts haven't always had, and speaking of acoustics, Hope, Lifeson's small acoustic piece is one of the albums true treats. The CD's other instrumentals, The Main Monkey Business and Malignant Narcissism both are excellent and work well to meld the album together. This is Rush's first multi-instrumental album.

Much has been made of Peart's lyrics on this album being very faith oriented, an understandable investigation of Peart's inner feelings on the issue considering much that has happened in his life the last ten years. However, the lyrics truly jump out at you, the examinations Peart is undergoing clearly defined and understood. There is little in the way of "Wonder what he means by that" in this album.

Overall this is an excellent Rush album, but still very much a Rush album. By that I mean if you are a die hard Rush fan, you have reason to rejoice. If you are not really a fan, this probably won't convert you. And if, like myself, you can go either way with Rush, this is one of the better ones.

4.5 out of 5

Dragonette Feature

National Post today gave a page 2 feature to Canada/Brit band Dragonette. The theme of the article is on Martina Sorbara, lead singer and daughter of Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara:

Meet the pop-star daughter of Ontario's buttoned-down Finance Minister: Martina Sorbara prowls the stage in a latex bodysuit and sings blithe numbers about one night stands.

Dragonette, the band she started with her husband, is gaining momentum, largely thanks to the provocative video for their single I Get Around, shot at Wicked, a swingers club on Toronto's Queen Street West. After a nod from Internet gossip columnist Perez Hilton, I Get Around received close to five million views on YouTube.

We will be watching for Dragonette, meanwhile here's the video in question: I Get Around.

Sapphire City CD release

Fergus based Indie band Sapphire City is having a CD release party for their debut CD, All We Are. The release is on April 27th, 2007 at the Five O'Clock Bar and Grill - 30 Glamis Road, Cambridge, Ontario N1R 7H5. Admission is free.

Some samples can be heard at the bands myspace site, and I must confess to being impressed. I wish I could make it out to the release party, but that's also my anniversary so sorry guys. I won't be reviewing the show for you.

I will try, however, to get a copy of the CD to review.

CD Review: Avril Lavigne: The Best Damn Thing

I should start this reviewing by pointing out I'm in my mid-40's; in other words, this album was not made with me in mind. I'm 25 years beyond the target audience, probably the wrong sex and not supposed to like it.

That out of the way, I don't mind this CD. Or rather, I can understand others who do like it. If I was in my teenage years, I could see me liking Girlfriend, which reminds me a lot of Kim Wilde's 1980 bopper anthem, Kids in America.

That said, it's kid music. Avril Lavigne is a young married woman, and is still writing stuff like :

Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don’t like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend.

She needs to grow up musically soon, or be left behind.

Another influence that keeps popping up, especially the title track The Best Damn Thing, is the Spice Girls. This should serve as a warning to Avril and her people. While fine for the teenage audience, if Avril plans on having a career down the road, she is going to have to mature with her audience. She has already surpassed the Spice Girls in longevity, but pushing out songs that sound like them is not good for the long haul.

I also note that the production team double track her voice in most of the album, and when they don't her voice comes across as weak, as it does for the verses of When You're Gone.

Overall, this is a decent collection, and should be a successful CD for Avril Lavigne. However, she is at a career stage where many careers begin to stumble. This CD is not such a stumble, but neither does it raise her to the next level of performance.

CD Review: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Montreal's Arcade Fire's second CD, Neon Bible released to much fanfare and acclaim about three weeks ago, is every bit as good as the hype suggests. The follow up to 2004's Funeral, Arcade Fire have produced a collection of songs varying in style and influence.

Influence, it's the word you think of most when listening to Arcade Fire. Their work is dripping with influence, with Neon Bible offering hints of Bruce Springsteen, The Go-Go's , The Band, U2, The Police, Fee Waybill and the Tubes as well as some 18th century church music sprinkled in.

These influences, however, aren't in the form of rip-off or blatant attempts to sound like someone, more so flavours, like a chef sprinkling spices over a dish. A quick flavour of the Go-Go's here, a guitar part that sounds like The Edge, a heart wrenching Rick Danko like vocal part. Hints, spices and flavours of others combine to create interesting music.

The songwriting is also mature and professional. No formula here, but clear storylined lyrics, music that drives the song forward and arrangements that solidify the whole into complete music.

Highlights include Keep The Car (U2 meets Eddie and the Cruisers, with mandolin), Intervention, Black Wave/Bad Vibration, with it's very Go-Go's beginning and the very Band like No Cars Go. That's just teh tip of the iceburg, however. Neon Bible is a solid collection, from a band that hopefully, will have a lot to say in the future.

Bachman Cummings New Album

It seems that Bachman and Cummings have a new CD in the works, a compilation of "Oldies Remakes," called Jukebox. Among the tracks on it will be Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie", Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Just Like a Woman", Sam Cooke's "Good Times" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O Soul" The Beatles' "I'm So Happy Just to Dance With You," Jimmy McCracklin's "The Walk," and John Fred's "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" and the classic Elvis track "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby."

The CD is set for release in April.

Milk Crate Classics #4 - Mama Let Him Play

What I remember most about Jerry Doucette's Mama Let Him Play is the cover. I used to wander into the record store and there was a poster of this album: A fabulous white Gibson SG double neck and a boy of about 2 sitting beside it. On the wall is a picture of a grown man, Jerry Doucette, in a frightening disco, suit playing the same guitar. Ten years later I had this poster on my wall and it stayed there a long time.

Interestingly, I never bought the album. Not then, not later when it hit the dollar bins. To this day I don't know why and in the late 80's I paid a King's ransom to finally get a copy. This is an album that has had a hold of me for a long time, much longer than I have had a hold of it, and it all starts with that one song, that anthem: Mama Let Him Play. Want a quick and fast opinion: This is the greatest flat out, straight ahead rock and roll song to ever come out of Canada! Ever!! Some will reasonably argue Takin' Care of Business, others maybe Innocence or American Women, others still My Heart Will Go On but I'm not budging. There is no greater high volume, high energy song to come out of Canada. This is the only known song in which I cannot drive and listen to simultaneously, at least not at the volume that this song must be played at.

But the rest of the album deserves scrutiny as well. It is, first of all, a product of its times. While Love Me Do may be a good song, it is unquestionably from the early 60's. Mama Let Him Play was released in 1977, and there is no mistaking it. When people think of 70's music, they often think disco. Disc, however, existed in our conscience for only two or three years and great rock and roll surrounded it. Unfortunately for Mama Let Him Play, 1977 was the middle of the disco craze. This makes it an album that is sometimes directionally confused and allows Doucette to get away from his strengths. This means there are moments when it is not up to its potential. All I Wanna Do and Love Is Gonna Find You are almost full blown disco songs that hurt the overall effort. But even the influence in songs like People Say is a drag on the song, and consequently the album.

Yet it is still one of my favourite albums, and at the top on my Top 5 Canadian Albums list. It is actually scary to think how good this album really could be if it was sans disco. The albums second track, Back Off, may be the second best Canadian straight ahead rock song - the great moments in this album are truly that good. People Say, disco bits and all, has a groove that so few artists ever achieve. Take away the disco and this song could be number three. The albums opening track and first single, Down The Road, is an hard edged pop song worthy of Bryan Adams (if only Adams was half the guitar player). What's Your Excuse and Keep On Running also deserve honourable mention. This is the way electric guitar was meant to be played, and it's songs like this that put the rock in rock and roll.

Overall, this is a great album that I would heartily endorse to anyone who likes 70's rock. This is as good as it can be, despite it's weak moments.

Jerry Doucette
Mama Let Him Play
Mushroom Records, 1977

Side One
All I Wanna Do
Back Off
When She Loves Me
People Say
All I Wanna Do

Side Two
Mama Let Him Play
What's Your Excuse
It's Gonna Hurt So Bad
Keep On Running
Love Is Gonna Find You

Not The Messiah Opens in Toronto

Monty Pythoner Eric Idle, the Brains behind the hit Broadway musical Spamalot, is at it again. This time it is Python's Life of Brian (The Greatest Movie ever made) that is being made into an oratorio. The "comic oratorio" will premier in Toronto under the baton of Idle's cousin TSO director Peter Oundjian. The oratorio will be called Not The Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy), is approximately 50 minutes in length and will run from June 1st to 10th.

Watch Singles Scene for ticket information.

The Police in Toronto July 22nd.

The Toronto Sun today reports that The Police are doing a reunion tour, and will hit Toronto July 22nd. Other Canadian dates are Edmonton on June 2 and Montreal on July 25. As well the tour will kick off in Vancouver on May 28.

Tickets for the Toronto Air Canada Centre show are reported to be $225, $90 and $50, and will go on sale this Saturday (Feb 17).

New Zappacosta CD

Perennial song smith Alphie Zappacosta is having a CD release party at Hugh's Room (2261 Dundas St. W.) on Saturday February 10th.

The CD, called Start Again, is a 15 song set, and features the remake of 4 of his classic songs: Start Again, Passion, We Should Be Lovers, and I'll Be the One. Start again is available for listening, and is really nicely re-done in an acoustic vein.

Tickets for the show are $18 advance, $20 at the door by calling 416-531-6604, although the show is rumoured to be sold out.

Endless Highway: The Music of the Band

Due for release tomorrow, January 30th, Endless Highway: The Music of the Band is a collection of great songs from quite possibly Canada's greatest band, by a wide variety of artists. The Band have long been hailed from inside the music industry, Eric Clapton was a noted fan of their first album, 1968's Music from Big Pink. The eclectic group that make up this CD, from The Allman Brothers to Gomez, Bruce Hornsby to Leanne Womak, this is an interesting an exciting addition to The Band pantheon.

The Album opens with Guster's This Wheel's On Fire, a rolling blue-grassy version that is both light and fun and pays appropriate homage to the Band's version.

Bruce Hornsby manages to sound more like The Band than himself on King Harvest, a bit disappointing considering his unique style and sound. None the less, his version of this song is a worthy addition, and actually excellent version. Just not very Bruce Hornsby-ish.

My Morning Jacket do an almost spot on version of It Makes No Difference, with a guitar running through it that could be Robertson at his peak playing.

Jack Johnson's I Shall Be Released, is a stunning version of a wonderful song. This may eclipse the Band's original version, and is clearly the highlight of the album.

Lee Ann Womack's The Weight is, as can be reasonable expected, heavily countried up. It's a song that lends itself well to countrification, and this works great, but it's also a song that I have long wished fro somebody to rock out on, and this would have been a good chance.

Bill Hayes, favourite band Gomez handle my favourite Band song, Up On Cripple Creek, very well. A friend last week was praising Gomez to me, suggested I had to hear them. This version of Cripple Creek makes me want to take him up on that.

The Allman Brothers give The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down the blues treatment, to some detriment. I would rather have given the Allman Brothers the Weight, and let Lee Ann Womak have this piece, but it is none the less, a different interpretation of the song, the third distinct on that I can think of. Nice writing Robbie!

Blues Traveller do a hopped up version of Rag Mama Rag that lacks true interpretation. They just seemed to have sped it up, cranked the honky-tonk piano in the mix, and called it a day.

John Hiatt & North Mississippi Allstars sound very much like The Band in Ain't No More Cane, with Hiatt himself sounding a lot like the late great Rick Danko.

Wallflowers lead singer, and son of Bob, Jakob Dylan's Whispering Pines is pretty if unremarkable.

California rocker's Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) modernize, without much changing Ophelia, a nice example of paying tribute without imitating.

Alt Country singer songwriter Joe Henry, treats Bessie Smith like an up-tempo folk tune, a nice treatment. Although my favourite Bessie Smith version is a swing version by the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra. None the less, this is a nice version.

Other highlights include a jam version of The Shape I'm In by Warren Haynes Govt. Mule, a rocked up version of Chest Fever, with full horns, a pretty version of Acadian Driftwood by female folkies The Roches, a cool treatment of Life is a Carnival and a stunning version of Stage Fright by Canadian folkie Steve Reynolds.

Over all, this is a great CD, the weak material being still good, and the best of it some great stuff. The Band were great songwriters, and what this CD does is show just how versatile and interesting their songs were. A nice tribute, and worth the price just for I Shall Be Released and Stage Fright, and Life is a Carnival may make it a bargain

1. Guster "This Wheel's On Fire"
2. Bruce Hornsby "King Harvest"
3. My Morning Jacket "It Makes No Difference"
4. Jack Johnson "I Shall Be Released"
5. Lee Ann Womack "The Weight"
6. Gomez "Up On Cripple Creek"
7. The Allman Brothers "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
8. Blues Traveler "Rag Mama Rag"
9. John Hiatt & North Mississippi Allstars "Ain't No More Cane"
10. Jakob Dylan "Whispering Pines"
11. Animal Liberation Orchestra "Ophelia"
12. Joe Henry "Bessie Smith"
13. Jackie Greene "Look Out Cleveland"
14. Death Cab For Cutie "Rocking Chair"
15. Gov't Mule "The Shape I'm In"
16. Steve Reynolds "Stage Fright"
17. Rosanne Cash "Unfaithful Servant"
18. Widespread Panic "Chest Fever"
19. Josh Turner "When I Paint My Masterpiece"
20. The Roches "Acadian Driftwood"
21. Trevor Hall "Life is a Carnival"