Alastair Greene: Dream Train, RipCat Records
Previously with the Alan Parson Live Project, now gone solo, Alastair Greene has given us a hugely enjoyable blues rocker with help from such luminaries as Walter Trout, Debbie Davies, Mike Zito, keyboard player Mike Finnigan, and harmonica maestro Dennis Gruenling.
Twelve original songs by Greene and Billy Gibbons’s Nome Zayne make for an adrenalin charged, head banging thrill of a record. Turn it up loud and let blues rock do what it does best – transport you out of your troubles and daily concerns.
Walter Trout’s guitar work on Another Lie is, as you would expect, gut wrenchingly good and well matched by Greene’s aching vocals. I greatly enjoyed the southern stomp of Down to Memphis with Mike Zito’s slide input. There’s a very nice acoustic guitar instrumental, too, right in the middle of the album, just to cool things down a little – Song for Rufus, dedicated to Greene’s cat! Just when you’ve caught your breath with that one, we’re swept away again with the classic rock of I’m the Taker.
I liked Rain Stomp, with its Robert Johnson vibe, and its talk of making rattlesnakes weep and moan. And the clean guitar work in the second of the album’s instrumentals, the laid-back Iowa.
A really fine blues rock album.
downatthecrossroads 