David Coverdale ~ Into The Light (album review) ... Find here music for your break-up or wedding!

Style: hard rock
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 2000
Home: n/a

Members: David Coverdale ~ vocals/guitar
Doug Bossi ~ guitar/b. vocals
Earl Slick ~ guitar
Marco Mendoza ~ bass/acoustic guitar/b. vocals
Denny Carmassi ~ drums
Mike Finnigan ~ keyboards

Additional: Derek Hilland ~ keyboards
John X. Volaitis ~ keyboards/percussion/b. vocals
Dylan Vaughan ~ guitar
Bjorn Thorsud ~ tambourine
James Sitterly ~ strings

Linda Rowberry ~ vocals

Guests: Reeves Gabrels ~ guitar solo
Tony Franklin ~ bass
Jimmy Z ~ harmonica


While many of us turn to Whitesnake for the 80's hard rock band with more love ballads than any band should be successfully known for, it really is all about former Deep Purple frontman turned bit of sex icon DC. Whitesnake might have had some top notch players in its ranks, but it essentially all comes down to the vocals. It's the vocals & memorable lyrics that forms the glue that keeps the Whitesnake machine ticking through line-up changes & musical trends & ups & downs. On his first solo album in a couple decades, actually his third solo album but the others pre-date his time in Deep Purple, DC reminds us of the fact that the secret of Whitesnake is his voice, its particular nuances, the mood he sets as a composer & the lyrics. This is a vocalist's album, more so than any Whitesnake album before or after. The guitars are still there as always, the riffs still heavy & bluesy, the crescendos still cascading as always, but the spotlight here is on the vocals with more ballads than normal or at least the album feels much slower & low-key & less in your face than anything DC had or has put out under the Whitesnake name. That might really be the only difference here, the slower more low-key feeling of the album on the whole. What's interesting about DC's approach here is that it doesn't sound like the bluesy 70's Whitesnake nor the overly polished MTV hit sensation Whitesnake, but an older more mature DC whose performing as much as for himself as for any chart success, if he even has any expectations of chart success at this point in his career. Yet, at the same time it draws more on the blues of the early days than DC has in years, while keeping in all the guitar flourishes that helped make Whitesnake distinctively popular. This album arrived following the dissolution of Whitesnake & the subsequent successful but short-term Coverdale/Page outing & a couple attempts to take a break from the music business. The reunited Whitesnake's Restless Heart was meant to be a solo album, with it's tour dubbed as the band's swan song. Thus, this solo album proper is DC coming out of seclusion yet again & trying to find himself & doing it on his terms not on Whitesnake terms, if such a thing is possible considering its his band & he's the only constant member. Thus it straddles all the facets of his career, yet at the same time doesn't & is its own creature. It's almost the perfect transitional album. It really does sound like a solo album & not just a Whitesnake album under a different name. Though, it doesn't push DC like Coverdale/Page did, yet doesn't try to duplicate what he's done before. It's a modest album where he just sings & has more fun than he might have had in years ... even with a new short haircut with his naturally dark hair returning for the first time in decades versus the long blond he became famous for, while his dress goes from slick 80's jackets to living room jeans. This is DC unplugged & relaxed & might be one of the most forgotten & under-rated albums of DC's career. It doesn't exactly provide a bridge between things as just shows a different rarely seen softer side of DC, a very humble & unpretentious side & very unglamorous. It won't hit you like earlier Whitesnake albums but there's some good later era love ballads here that should be given a second chance & are quite memorable. It does get a little melodramatic though, but just as much as his earlier albums got a little hair metal.

Hughes/Thrall ~ Hughes/Thrall (aka debut) (album review) ... Hugely enthralling!

Style: hard rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1981
Home: n/a

Members: Glenn Hughes ~ bass/vocals
Pat Thrall ~ guitar/guitar synthesizer

Additional: Peter Schless ~ keyboards
Frankie Banali, Gary Ferguson, Gary Mallaber ~ drums

Pumping 80's synth keyboards ... sometimes it works & spawns a whole new style, i.e prog & new wave, sometimes it's an unnecessary clutter that turns what could be some great solid rock into some heavily dated sounding AOR rock. This somewhat forgotten release by H/T is marred only by the over emphasis on the keyboards ... & guitar synthesizer, which isn't much better. Considering half of H/T is a guitarist one expects more than melody lines dominated by synth guitar with the actual guitar buried in the mix by a producer who knows better, i.e. Andy Johns of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Free, etc., leaving too much emphasis on the instruments that shouldn't be emphasized. Albeit, the bass & amazing vocal foray are really what charges & drives the album & even more so with this mix. For bassist/singer Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple, & now the popular Black Country Communion, & guitarist Pat Thrall from the Pat Travers band & Al Di Meola this pairing came at an opportune moment personally & musically. Thrall had yet to cash in on his growing name recognition while Hughes had spent five years languishing in drugs & depression following a single solo album & the death of his bandmate Tommy Bolin. The time was ripe for both of them to break free of their chains, while their respective styles & background make it a union full of potential for some interesting hard rock. The fact that the potential didn't pay off in the long-run as probably hoped is just more sad than anything & isn't necessarily anything but a cloudy reflection of the music. In the short run it's quite delightful in a sneak up on you sort of why. Months of rehearsal & songwriting went into creating this release with a keyboardist & trio of drummers including Frankie Banali of future Quiet Riot. Given the participants the resu;t is a surprisingly low key unglamorous affair ... its even hard to call this rock guitar album but instead feels like a radio friendly somewhat pop rock album. It feels almost as if Thrall isn't quite sure of himself & is erring on the side of caution instead of hanging loose, turning in little pieces instead of any heavy riffs, & trying to sound like what's on the scene than having any sound of his own. Hughes is out front with his bass steadily thumping away & really making the songs what they are. While it's hard to believe he was out of music for awhile as his vocals are amazingly great & in top form & stretched out in many different direction sounding like so many of his influences. His tuneful screams, a la Graham Bonnet, are particularly delightful (i.e. "I Got Your Number"). Check out the vocals on "The Look In Your Eye" & "Muscle & Blood" & the David Lee Roth-esque "First Step Of Love" & finally understand what the buzz around him is about. Sadly, the lyrics aren't anything particularly special beyond average rock prose. On first listen many will probably find Hughes/Thrall an uninteresting release, if not a bit too Asia-esque or of the era. I did. It's far from exciting ... or at least takes a few listens to get there. It doesn't match expectations but that might be its selling point. It comes from a different direction & thus has nothing to live up to because the expectations don't apply. It's one of those releases that seeps under your skin on repeated listens & the hard rockers (for example, "Muscle & Blood") suddenly rock harder & it'll be quickly obvious that there's absolutely no filler among the nine songs. It's tight & will leave one wanting more. For fan of Hughes singing or those wanting an introduction to him this release should not be missed. Thrall has done better, but his playing here has been compared to Allan Holdsworth while others have said this is the same vein that Billy Idol would tap into. Potentially. Demos were made for a follow-up but were scrapped due to bad sales & the pair split after a short tour with Santana & Ratt. Another attempt at follow-up was started in 1997, but in 2008 Hughes withdrew from the project saying a decade was too long for any musical project & would return to the scene with the outstanding all star Black Country Communion.

Coverdale/Page ~ Coverdale/Page (aka debut) (album review) ... Un-led-ed blues that will kick your ass!

Style: blues-rock, hard rock
Label: Geffen
Year: 1993
Home: n/a

Members: David Coverdale ~ vocals/rhythm guitar
Jimmy Page ~ lead guitar/bass/harmonica/b. vocals
Denny Carmassi ~ drums
Lester Mendel ~ keyboards/percussion
Jorge Casas ~ bass

Additional: Ricky Phillips ~ bass
John Harris ~ harmonica
Tommy Funderburk, John Sambataro ~ b. vocals

When surviving Led Zeppelin titans Jimmy Page & Robert Plant reunited for their MTV unplugged concert Un-Led-ed: No Quarter it was an event few wanted to miss. It had everything & more. They followed it with Walking Into Clarksdale ... that had everything & less. I couldn't help but want to then turn to the C/P self-titled album, featuring the Deep Purple/Whitesnake singer who sings & looks far too similar to Plant, & thinking how this is the album I wanted to hear from Page/Plant. Though, ironically I'd bought Coverdale/Page when it was first released thinking it was a Page/Plant reunion. I'd seen the video for "Pride & Joy" & was mesmerized by the instrumentation & arrangement. I was just beginning to get into Led Zeppelin & hard rock. I knew that Page had guested on a Plant album & thought this was it, not knowing who look-alike Coverdale was, & went out & bought Plant's Now & Zen. My disappointment was overwhelming, & though Page is on the album it was nothing close to the acoustic/electric mix of "Pride & Joy". I had to wait for the video to come on again before discovering whose album I actually wanted to buy. Though I've since become a Whitesnake fan & love Jimmy Page's Outrider solo effort, even with all its flaws, I consider C/P a highlight of both their careers post-Zeppelin/Purple. It mixes the best of all worlds, with moody songs to hardcore blues to hard rock with great singing & playing along with basically well-crafted songs. A factor might be that this is the first effort, including Zeppelin, where Page was involved in the lyric writing which in-turn influenced his playing & approach to composing. Some critics said Page joined Coverdale because he couldn't get Plant so an imitator was the next best thing. While Coverdale/Page undoubtedly has strains of later era Zeppelin it's anything but an imitation nor sounds remotely close to Plant or Page's respective solo careers up to this time, nor even Coverdale's music & any eclipses any Zeppelin sounding bands on the scene such as Badlands or Bonham. There's no way to listen to anything Page does without comparison to Zeppelin but that was such an influential band it's better to not compare. There's only one winner in that equation. Heavy on the blues some of the ballads would be better if they didn't hit the 6 & 7 minute mark. But, the overall product is farther away from the commercial mainstream three minute rock that Coverdale had been writing since leaving Purple so there is great excitement hearing him try new avenues. He also favors a deep throaty call versus his recognizable tenor that is incredibly attractive & a highlight of many songs. When not wallowing in the blues the rest of the album is pure adrenalized hard rock with Page's most enthused & creative playing since Zeppelin. His riffs are layered but not cluttered as often plagues his work & partially caused Walking Into Clarksdale to not live up to expectations. The rhythm section is also top notch creating some heavy foundations courtesy of drummer Denny Carmassi, known for his work with Montrose with Sammy Hagar & Heart & would return to Coverdale's side later, & bassist Jorge Casas who provides a heavy low end with a couple songs even featuring a second bassist to provide extra punch. It grounds Page's playing in a way that had hurt both his Outrider & the Firm. Page's riffs & rhythms dominate the songs but he doesn't play anything that hasn't been heard before, his playing languishing with a timeless quality of little growth, often leaving the key to the success of many songs on Coverdale's vocals. Luckily, he's up to the challenge. C/P probably never was going to have life beyond a single album due to the requirements of Whitesnake & quirkiness of Page's career, I've always felt sad that the ensuing tour didn't do so well & the potential of anything more was firmly removed because this is a basically everything anyone could really ask for from a one-off unlikely union.

Black Night: Deep Purple Tribute According To New York (album review) ... More like a tribute to New York!

Style: hard rock, tribute, funk
Label: Revolver Music
Year: 1997
Home: New York City

Members: T.M. Stevens ~ bass/lead vocals

Guests: Joe Lynn Turner, Tony Harnell, Cory Glover ~ lead vocals
Simon Gregory ~ guitars/b. vocals
Will Calhoun, Van Romaine ~ drums/b. vocals
Cindy Blackman ~ drums
Ritchie Kotzen ~ lead vocals/guitars
Al Pitrelli, Lars Y. Loudamp, Steve Salas, Vinnie Moore ~ guitars
Bernie Worrell ~ keyboards

I tend to avoid compilations as potential reviews as it will undoubtedly turn into a situation of judging one band against another & if I like one contributing band but not another I'm in an uncomfortable position of comparison ... but, this is an interesting compilation as it's produced by funk bassmaster T.M. Stevens & features only fellow New York musicians ... many of whom aren't household names but whose careers as just illustrious as anyone else ... with the set number of musicians organized so no two songs feature the same line-up though the same musicians are all over the album with T.M. Stevens as the one stable factor & Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun coming in near second. Also, I happen to be a big fan of Richie Blackmore, but who isn't, & of guitarist Al Pitrelli who rips through four tracks. Speaking of Al ... the roster of musicians on this tribute - wow! The list is the best of NYC, though by far not inclusive of all the great talent in the city. It includes alumni/members of Rainbow, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, TNT, Living Colour, UFO, Mick Jagger, Lenny Kravitz, Steve Morse, Poison, Mr. Big & more. & yes, they all live up to their reputations which isn't always the case with tribute albums of this type. Besides rotating through Stevens backing band over the years, many of these musicians have played together in numerous other projects or even been in the same bands. The comradery comes through. There might not be a single real or permanent band on the outing, but the inherent cohesiveness of sounds & styles says differently. So often one-off tribute line-ups like this are created by people who don't each other & the music suffers because no one is on the same page. But, with long shared histories & Stevens keeping a watchful eye on the outcome this compilation does not suffer like most of its stilted 'in it for the money only' label created cousins & easily rises to the top of tribute albums. As for the music itself. This is not Richie Blackmore. No one can copy his style ... if they can even play that fast & nimbly. Though at times some of the guitarists come close in their own individual way, but the point here is obviously not to imitate but pay tribute. There's a big difference that a lot of bands misunderstand when doing covers. Focusing on imitation is where other tribute albums usually fail. The point is also to give the album a New York City edge, which obviously deters some inclinations to imitate. Which, for Stevens, is to funk Deep Purple up. For those that think Deep Purple can't be funked up the results are shocking & ecstatic. Blackmore has always been a very melodic player, avoiding the cliché riffing style, so putting a funk behind his rock rhythms doesn't sound like two strangers coming together. Given Blackmore's diverse inspirations he'd probably approve of the resulting interpretations. Even a reggae-fied "Child In Time" comes across successfully, with the great Bernie Worrell on keys though it migrates into a rock sound. Further, you usually don't get to hear most of these guys ... and girl, laying their stuff over a bed of funk so this is a treat. Upbeat, fun, & it gives an equal balance to funk & rock, more in the sense that the rhythm is funk & the leads are undoubtedly rock. At times it reminds me of Band of Gypsies, Hendrix's funk outfit. Sometimes when you have an album with such a star line-up you aim to listen for a particular musician. Yes, I'll confess I bought this album for Pitrelli, but this is an album where you stop trying to focus in on the details cause the whole thing is an exciting collage of sound ... the way it should be with no superstars just a bunch of good old city boys jammin'. As for is this a particularly NYC sound? Well, what is a NYC sound? I've always seen it as Lou Reed, but heroin isn't mentioned anywhere on the album nor are there any screechy Velvet Underground-like tirades. While it's definitely not the New York Dolls, Twisted Sister, Beastie Boys & there's not a bit of Broadway in sight. So, who really can say. It's definitely not L.A. glam, that's for sure. For the curious, all the hits are here: "Black Night", "Strange Kind Of Woman", "Fireball", "Smoke On The Water", "Child In Time", "Woman From Tokyo", "Space Truckin", "Stormbringer", "Speed King" & "Burn".

Deep Purple - Abandon (album review) ... Neo-prog power!

Style: blues-rock, power metal, hard rock
Label: CMC International
Year: 1998
Home: Britain

Members: Ian Gillan ~ vocals
Roger Glover ~ bass
Jon Lord ~ keyboards
Steve Morse ~ guitar
Ian Paice ~ drums

Those who haven't listened to Deep Purple since "Smoke To The Water" or at least since David Coverdale left to form Whitesnake might be quite surprised with this release, as I was, as this is not what you'd expect a largely forgotten prog-metal band to be playing. What I expected was the same music they always played but with the signs of age and a lost style of music. That might be what you hear on a current Big Brother & The Holding Company album but that's not what Deep Purple delivered here. This is not a rehash of a long dead style of music nor a band that's on it's last legs. This is a vibrant release with element of past days, most prominently via the dated sounding organ swirls, but the metal riffing goes right up there alongside any other band of the current scene. Savatage is one that immediately comes to mind as there's a slight hint of grandiose here. The album opens with some funkier ("Any Fule Kno That") metal with the expected Deep Purple keyboards & fury of guitars, but it's not predictable of the rest of the album which is very heavy, even for Deep Purple who have put aside their prog roots to become a solid rock band, with lots of neo-prog power metal and some gutsy blues thrown in for good measure. The blues songs sound like they come out of another band, one that plays strictly blues, except here the slow groove is occasionally enlightened by fast and flying guitar solos courtesy of Steve Morse of the Satriani/Vai/Malmsteen style. I usually find power metal often lacking in emotion but the blues foundation gives it a new lift. Morse does a great job of reminding us of the lost art of the guitar solo with all the subtle tricks and twists of the notes that was largely lost when hair metal went out of style. Or, at least, he recalls how much fun a whammy-bar makes the guitar. Alt rock just doesn't touch this stuff no matter how hard it tries. But, the real secret is original singer Ian Gillan on vocals, who has an incredibly husky middle aged man distinctive tone that could give him a great career as a twangy country singer if he chose to go that direction. He's no longer the same guy that sang "Smoke On The Water" but its a tonal change for the better that works perfectly with the music. Some may know the name of Gillan from one forgotten album with Black Sabbath. This is a pretty cool album but is anyone but hardcore Deep Purple fans still paying attention to a band that everyone probably thought split decades ago?