| 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.
Old rock rolls nicely on iPod
My son bought an iPod several months ago. Since that time, we have revisited some of the greatest songs to rock, crank, schmooze and snooze the music scene of the last four decades. On his current playlist are artists as diverse as Louis Armstrong and Lenny Kravitz, Steve Perry and Brad Arnold. If you don't know who Brad Arnold is, just ask the folks in Escatawpa, about 3 Doors Down. Lots of things happen when middle-aged mamas and daddies listen to the music of their youth. One of the more remarkable results is their children are forced to endure lots of air guitar solos and sad attempts at dancing. .
Dirty Dan revs his rock engine
The Boyzz From Illinoizz ruled the late 1970s Chicagoland rock clubs with an outrageous live performance that included twin lead guitar assaults, a rolling (literally!) upright piano and lead singer who pole vaulted across stage using his microphone stand.A biker band, The Boyzz were certainly one of the more outrageous rock 'n' boogie bands ever to hail from the Midwest and remain firmly engraved in the minds of anyone fortunate enough to have seen them perform. Fronting The Boyzz was the charismatic Dirty Dan Buck, whose razor blades and whiskey voice was the perfect vehicle for the bluesy hard rock songs like "Back to Kansas," "Hoochie Coochie," "Destined to Die" and "Good Life Shuffle" that filled up their 1979 debut album for Epic Records, "Too Wild To Tame."Most of those first album songs are part of the live set performed by the still vibrant and energetic Buck and the members of his new self-named group."We always do the first two Boyzz singles 'Shake It Up, Wake It Up' and 'Shady Lady' and of course we couldn't leave without doing 'Too Wild to Tame,'" said Buck.Tonight's Hobart Jayceefest performance will be Buck's first headline concert performance in Northwest Indiana in two decades."We opened for Cheap Trick at the Star Plaza a couple of years ago and we were part of the Katrina Hurricane Benefit at the Star Plaza last year, but I really haven't rocked Indiana in a long, long time, so I'm really pumped up about this concert.
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