2015 – American Showplace
Music
By Phillip Smith; Oct. 17, 2015
The Todd Wolfe Band seems to just get better and better.
Wolfe surrounds himself with
some of the most talented musicians around: drummer Roger Voss, bassist Justine Gardner, and the master of the B3, John Ginty. Since Wolfe’s last album was released in
2013, his band has spent over 200 nights on the road touring the world. It was during these travels; the band wrote
and developed material for his ninth album, Long
Road Back. It’s an intelligent mix
of mind-bending Rock and Blues.
Title track “Long Road Back” is
pure Southern Rock with an Allman
Brothers/Govt Mule vibe. I’d love to hear this one with an extended
jam. “Poison” has all the qualities of a
hit song. Wolfe lets loose some really nice bluesy guitar licks while Ginty’s luscious B3 attacks and Gardner’s funky bassline slide nicely
into place. This is just a fantastic piece. “Fire Me Up” has a nice homey
groove, and seemingly calls back to his days working with Sheryl Crow. Wolfe throws a little Southern seasoning
into “Annalee” which hums down the track like a freight train tearing cross-country. I love the slide guitar screams he injects into
the song.
Wolfe
breathes a phenomenal new life into Stephen
Still’s “Black Queen”. This rockin’ jewel, slathered in a heavy dose
of Seventies psychedelia, is such a delightful listen. They also give a stellar performance, taking
on Cream’s “Outside Woman Blues”.
Voss bangs
out a cool as hell tribal beat which leads in to the witchy “Hoodoo River”. Sporting infectious grooves saturated in trance
blues, this is a splendid song to chill to.
Ginty plays the hell out of this
one, and Wolfe’s guitar playing is
simply amazing. “Gone” is another track
that blows me away. It’s fuzzier, funkier,
and contagious as hell.
There is so much going on in
the music in this album, I hear something new and interesting each time I hear
it. Needless to say, Long Road Back is a fabulous album and indeed
a terrific listen.
