Monday 5 January 2015

Ricky Warwick (The Almighty / Black Star Riders) - When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues) (2014/15)

 
Genre - Hard Rock / Classic Rock
Label - Pledge Music
 
Track listing:
01 - The Road To Damascus Street
02 - Celebrating Sinking
03 - When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues)
04 - Toffee Town
05 - That's Where The Story Ends
06 - Johnny Ringo's Last Ride
07 - Gold Along The Cariboo
08 - The Son Of The Wind
09 - If You're Not Gonna Leave Me
10 - Yesteryear
This is the second of the two brand spanking new albums released by Ricky Warwick, with this - When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues) - being the full blown rock album.

Again Ricky has enlisted the help of many of his celebrity friends to assist him with this album including the likes of:
Robbie Crane, Gary Sullivan, Andy Cairns (who also co-wrote Celebrating Sinking), Billy Morrison, Nathan Connolly, Mark Gemini Thwaite, Sam Retzer, Ginger Wildheart (who co-wrote Johnny Ringo's Last Ride), and Richard Fortus.
One of the first things that you will notice is that this album has more in common sonically with Black Star Riders than The Almighty with its rather polished production.
The album kicks off with a great mid-tempo rocker, The Road To Damascus Street which sets the scene for the rest of what is to follow. Celebrating Sinking follows, which slows the tempo down a little yet great song that was co-written with Andy Cairns of Therapy? fame. When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues) is up next and proves to another great mid-tempo ed rocker. So far so good!
Toffee Town is the next track and what a song it is. The tempo quickens for this fun track that really is one of the albums highlights that kind of brings to mind the Just Add Life era Almighty.
That's Where The Story Ends is up next, and my favourite track on the album, with its spaghetti western feel. This is destined to become a Ricky Warwick classic I'm sure!
Next we get Ricky's collaboration with one of my favourite artists, Ginger Wildheart, in the form of Johnny Ringo's Last Stand. The song which is a corker by the way, has Ginger written all over it whilst at the same time retaining all of Ricky's trademarks. Another album highlight.
The tempo slows a little for  Gold Along The Cariboo which proves itself to be another solid song, whilst The Son Of The Wind is a great song driven along by its drum beat and guitar riff. I do feel that this would of have made a great Almighty track with a rougher production, as I feel that the albums polished production does rob this song of a little of its power!
If You're Not Gonna Leave Me has a real Thin Lizzy / Black Star Riders vibe whist album closer is a real stonker of a track.
With When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues) Ricky Warwick has delivered a great album that has many highlights (especially when taken together with the albums sister acoustic album Hearts On Trees!) despite writing and recording a brand new Black Star Riders
album and beinf heavily involved in the planned re-issue of The Almighty's back catalogue, (which is set to include copious amounts of bonus material!).
Ricky has been really busy as of late and 2015 is looking to be a huge year for him, and deservedly so!

Very Highly recommended!

Rating - 10/10



 

No comments:

Post a Comment