ROB AMBROSINO - Southern Wind (1 track CDS)

Once you fightyour way through the lo-fi recording, what you have is a delicious west coast vibe, reminiscent of Firefall at their smooth seventies best. This is available through MP3.com but you can get it pressed on CD from Robs web site, if like me, you want to hold your music, physically, as well as emotionally.

Rob used to play with the upstate New York band "Not Us You" which opened for Orleans and "Pat Benatar back in the day, which was when he wrote "Southern Wind". After the band broke up, Rob went solo, now lives in Katy, TX and plays area clubs and events around the Houston area and occasionally returns to perform at the "Back Fence" in Greenwich Village. This is one of two CD singles ("Greenport Turning Point" being the other), and hopes to release his first Album in 2003.

Rob says about this song 'I wrote this song on an airplane heading back home to Florida from New York State. Back at college, our band had just opened on the big stage for "The Winters Bros." & "Grinderswitch". The lyrics are about the feeling you get when after you have lots of hard work behind you. The song actually took about half an hour to write and about 3 hours to record. This song was recorded at Pyramid Studios in Ithaca, N.Y. with the help of studio giant Alex Pirialis.'

If a proper studio sound emerges on the CD and the songs match the quality of this one, then it should be something woth waiting for.

CINDY KALMENSON - Let Me Out Here / Witness

What I have here are the first two releases by Americana artist Cindy Kalmenson. Cindy is influenced by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Neil Young, Joan Baez and Emmylou Harris, and it is to her credit that these CDs are going to remain on the playlist here in Zeitgeit Towers for a long, long time.

Cindy has such a sweet, unique voice that lifts the songs out of 'just another singer/songwriter' territory, and makes good songs into great ones. Now, I appreciate that there are great song interpreters out there, but there is something extra special about a singer feeling their own words, and the music here is no exception.

Ms Kalmenson has been making a name for herself in Nashville over the last couple of years. At the 2002 Music Awards for songwriters, Cindy won the Americana Song Finalists with first place going to "Hobo Rock Star" from her second release, "Witness".

There are so many beautiful songs spread across these CDs that it's hard to value one above the other, although at the time of writing, the heartfelt naivety of "Let Me Out Here" is slightly ahead on repeat plays, although the humour and passion that is more evident on "Witness" is equally addictive. Key tracks?

"Let Me Out Here" - the title track, "Break The Shell", Was It Just The Wine" and the bluesy "The Damage Was DOoe"
Witness - "Right Or Wrong", "Good Bad Habit", "Man Of My Dreams" and "Even In The Rain".

Go get these now. Your life will be improved.

MICHAEL BUFFALO SMITH - Southern Lights

Best known round our way as editor of "Gritz" (and I need a copy of Issue 4, by the way), this is actually the first opportunity I have had to experience the music of the man. And it was an absolute delight. Taking a step back into time to my beloved seventies, southern rock, this CD eases it's way into your life, with a late night, laid back vibe that relaxes the mind and the body, emulating the sound and groove of early Marshall Tucker.

That's not to say that this is a somnabulent release. It's more the desire for simpler times, of good friends, a loving family, and the knowledge that things are going to be OK. There's a good mix of rock, blues and swamp music that always gives you something new to listen out for. MBS may not have the strongest voice ever, but passion and belief wins out over technique any day. In an overly cynical world, as we hurl towards Armageddon, we need music like this.

And if you're looking for virtuoso performances, how can you go wrong with a guest list that reads former David Allan Coe guitarist Ray Brand, ex Hourglass Pete Carr, Muscle Shoals veteran Stephen Foster, ex-Charlie Daniels Band guitarist Tommy Crain, Bob Seger alumnus Pete Carr, Sailcat graduate John D. Wyker and the legendary voice of Bonnie Bramlett.

The key tracks for me, and ones that will be appearing on my regular home made, southern fried compilations are "Behind The Eyes" and Ride On My Friend". All in all, a truly excellent release.

 

TRIGON - das umo mandat

Not ‘easy’ music, ‘Das Umo Mandat’ has an indefinable quality, improvised, quixotic, astatic, organic, some ideas not fully realised, led from the front by a splendid guitarist Rainer Lange backed by a solid rhythm section of Stefan Lange and Daniel Beckman.
This is ‘heavy’ rock with a ‘touch’ of blues (the second track), sometimes deceptively simple in structure (the 4 note ‘riff’ of the third track), always building to an uncertain conclusion, some tracks clearly ‘works in progress’. These are public jams after all!
If improvised guitar based instrumental music is your scene Trigon is up there with the best. I’m not really sure why I am such a big fan of Trigon’s music- it just gives me such an incredible feeling of time and space.
To find out more about the musical philosophy and accomplishments of Trigon check out the interview on this website.
Contact and rainer.lange@l-bank.de

Trigon CDs are available at The Rocker

(Trigon review by Phil Jackson)