Former guitarist with the
Fabulous Thunderbirds, and award-winning American blues guitarist Kirk
Fletcher is excited to release his sixth album My Blues Pathway.
BLESS YOUR HEART – release date 28th August 2020 (BMG Records)
Greg Allman and Dickey Betts were
founding members of the great American country rock band The Allman Brothers,
and two of the next generation, Devon
Allman and Duane Betts joined forces in 2019 to launch a new album,
and tour on the back of that and some of the Allman Brothers greatest hits,
being the 50th anniversary of that seminal band.
Devon is also well known for his Royal
Southern Brotherhood project with Cyril Neville (Neville Brothers) and
Blues Guitar virtuoso Mike Zito.
Matt Pearce is one of the guitarists in high-profile UK classic rock band Voodoo Six, who are about to release their long-awaited new album in October, and before I review that one, having missed out on the London gig for Matt due to COVID-19 in March this year, I wanted to give this one a spin.
They don’t come much more legendary than this – led by founding member Kim Simmonds, the British Blues-Rock band Savoy Brown is releasing a new album on August 28th – their 41st!
Revival Black are a classic sounding hard rock band, striking out of the cultural heartland that is Liverpool, England sometime in 2018, out of the ashes of Black Cat Bones.
I have had this album on regular play for about a month now thanks to our own Josie O’Toole at Rock People Management, and have found it really hard to get a suitable focus on the content of the record in order to write a coherent review.
This is the Brighton (UK) riff-lords third album in their 12-year history, and got released as a result of a successful crowd-funding campaign that initially fell over due to the Pledge crisis, and got revived through the band’s own web-store – and the album was released in May.
The newest release, their fifth studio album in just over 10 years, from the Lancaster rockers Massive Wagons will be released on 17th July 2020, via Earache Records. This is another of the NWOCR powerhouse bands who have been laying waste to the UK over the past couple of years with their incendiary brand of ludicrously catchy power-pop rock, punk metal, and the latest offering is again full of crowd-pleasing shoutalong riff-driven songs.
Mixing the twang of country music with the hard-hitting stomp of rock & roll, Canada’s Cory Marks makes his debut with Who I Am. Full of autobiographical storytelling, guitar-driven anthems, drinking songs, and breakup ballads, Who I Am is rooted in the influence of his hometown in Ontario. Whenever he wasn’t drumming along to songs by Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne, and Rush, he was listening to his parents’ country records, developing a deep appreciation for outlaws like Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard.
“Hard Melodic” Birmingham rockers DevilFire released their debut album Dark Manoeuvres, back in 2017 to high acclaim, and they are thrilled to announce that their brand new album Black Soul Vendetta will be hitting the streets through CARGO Records and all reputable platforms on Sept 4th.
A female three-piece rock band from the UK is not completely unusual, and Häxan, from Cardiff in South Wales is definitely a band to keep your eye on, already performing at venues such as Download Festival UK, touring with a diverse bunch of bands including Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, Electric Six. The Subways and Status Quo, as well as some shows with our own Massive, they’re not just ladies, they’re rock stars ready to take the stage.
Australian heavy rock band Wicked Smile will release their debut EP titled Delirium on July 1st.
The band is fronted by charismatic powerhouse lead vocalist Danny Cecati (ex Pegazus & Eyefear) with Stevie Janevski (The Radio Sun, ex Black Majesty) on guitars. The four song EP is produced by Paul Laine (The Defiants & Danger Danger) who also plays bass and sings backing vocals on the record, and mastered by Paul’s bandmate Bruno Ravel.
It is always a joy to get to hear a new FM album…….from the very first listen to that first FM record Indiscreet in 1986, having been a fan of Wildlife before then, and seeing them as the ultimate AOR support band over the next couple of years, including the epic Astoria show in 1987 with White Sister as the opening act.
Formed in 2014, These Wicked Rivers are a four-piece rock band from Derby in the UK, and have previously released two EPs: The Enemy and II, alongside a double A-side single Shoulda Known Better, which gained the band a first wave of critical acclaim.
Release Date June 19th 2020 (Off Yer Rocka Recordings)
Thirteen Stars are a Southern Rock band with a bluesy/country swing all the way from the West Coast of Cumbria. Finest Ramshackle Jam is an album that I have found really hard to categorise – not that I really want to pigeonhole any artist – from a band than spans the whole spectrum from bluegrass through country to soul, grunge and then flat out southern rock. The common thread running across the whole thing is the rough gruff vocal delivery of main man Hoss Thompson who founded the band back in 2009, and in fact wrote, sang and played all the instruments on the 2010 debut release!
The UK band’s self-titled album from the following year was widely acclaimed by critics and fans alike, so the 4-piece’s follow up Lost Souls which was released this week, is expected to make huge waves in the NWOCR scene especially, but given the slightly progressive elements here, local fans of Cog, Dead Letter Circus and Karnivool would all find plenty to get interested in.