Kevin Bryan’s record reviews
Greenslade,”Large Afternoon” (Angel Air SJPCD 411) Greenslade’s keyboarddominated brand of prog rock attracted a deluge of critical plaudits during the band’s creativeheyday in the mid seventies,but a series of insoluble management problems finally prompted theband to give up the ghost in 1976. Dave Greenslade decided to reform the quartet almost aquarter of a century later,joining forces with his old friend Tony Reeves and new members JohnYoung and Chris Cozens to record “Large Afternoon.” The finished product lacked some of theinventiveness and originality of their early work but is well worth investigating nonetheless,with“On Suite” and “Cakewalk” emerging as the best of the bunch.
Royal Southern Brotherhood,”Heartsoulblood” (Ruf 1204)Royal SouthernBrotherhood’s sublime blend of rock,blues and funk represents a glorious throwback to thegolden era of Southern rockers such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers some forty yearsor so ago,and Gregg Allman’s guitar toting son Devon is coincidentally one of the driving forcesbehind the quintet’s muscular sound. The latter’s interplay with fellow guitarist Mike Zito is oneof the most appealing features of this splendid set,and the dynamic duo are in particularly finefettle on standout tracks such as “World Blues,” “Groove On” and “Rock and Roll.”
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Hide Ad“Breezy SugarThe Pure Essence of Chicago Rock & Roll” (Fantastic VoyageFVTD 197)Rock historian Stuart Colman’s latest wideranging anthology focusses attention onsome of the vibrant performers who ventured into Chicago’s recording studios during the latefifties and early sixties. The windy city’s contribution to the history of rock and roll has tended tobe undervalued over the years but the 75 tracks on offer here certainly repay closerinvestigation,with familiar names such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley rubbing shoulders withsome fascinating obscurities culled from the dusty archives of long forgotten labels likeFascination,Artistic and Falcon.