| A declaration of independence from San Angelo’s blues-rock trio
Heaven, the brothers have put together an album thats just so bursting with musicianship that the lyrical cliches are excused. Blues rock, after all, is not the forum for budding Baudelaires.
As with gospel songs, the material on Sacred generally starts calm, introspective, then works itself into a fiery jam of emotion. Henry Garzas guitar-playing borders on spectacular, as he steps out of the shadows of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Carlos Santana to rock to his own tone at the end of Living My Life. Besides being a flat-out ripper, the eldest Garza displays a great sense of melody in his solos. His resurrection of the electric blues guitar hero is quite stunning.
The knock on Sacred is that it sounds too much like it was made on purpose. Hitting stores a year later than originally projected, it comes off like a record toiled on and fussed over, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Concert review: Kinks' Ray Davies shows he still really got it
Even as Ray Davies blasted through a jumpy version of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone," at the Warfield on Thursday night, one couldn't help but wonder where Davies had gone the past couple decades. Outside of making the news a couple years ago for getting shot in the leg while trying to corral a purse-snatcher in his adopted hometown of New Orleans, Davies looked like he'd eased into retirement. If he's been missing, it certainly wasn't because he couldn't rock anymore. Surely one of rock's most underrated all-time greats, the former leader of the Kinks is back with solo record "Other People's Lives," and a tour this year. At 62, he still has plenty of energy, both on-stage and in his new material -- much of which he played Thursday, mixing well with Kinks' nuggets.
On a rock 'n' roll
Theyre at Summerfest, church carnivals, raucous nightclubs, lively Jewish weddings, crowded coffeehouses, gubernatorial parties, swank yacht clubs, corporate shindigs, barnlike college auditoriums and any other place imaginable where professional musicians are required. There is an enormous gulf between the wanna-be dreams of the garage band hobbyist and the dedicated grind needed by full-time performers to pay dental bills and mortgages, juggle family obligations, keep tax records, deal with club owners and be sure there are extra guitar strings packed. .
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