Supergroup, Super Session, Super Album, Super Blues Rock
Who are The Rides you ask? Only Stephen Stills and Kenny Wayne Shepherd with Barry Goldberg (keyboards – Electric Flag), Kevin McCormick (bass – CS &N; Jackson Browne) and Chris Layton (drums – Double Trouble)!
‘Supergroups’ have come and gone like the wind since the term was first coined for Cream in 1966; but The Rides actually works on so many different levels; leaving you to wonder why they didn’t get together sooner.
The Rides came together when Stills and Goldberg were jamming at the instigation of their mutual Manager, Elliott Roberts when the first inkling of a co-written song came together. Soon Kenny Wayne Shepherd was invited to the party and before you knew it the entourage holed up in a studio for a week with a handful of songs and CAN’T GET ENOUGH is the final, spectacular outcome.
I’d forgotten that Still could ‘rock’ and; to me, Kenny Wayne Shepherd was another twiddly guitar player who leaves no note unplayed so I was astounded to hear how ‘low down and dirty’ opening track Mississippi Roadhouse was; with Still’s voice virtually a growl and Shepherd feeds some masterful searing guitar licks into the mix on this slice of pure Texas Blues.
I’m a sucker for Old-School Blues and Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s vocals on their version of Muddy Water’s Honey Bee is simply electrifying as the Rides take the original and give it Dr. John style makeover that takes your breath away like a punch to the stomach.
The title track, Can’t Get Enough is so slow and funky it should have an X Certificate and I doubt whether Stephen Stills voice has ever sounded better.
Although this is Blues Rock at its absolute finest The Rides manage to slide in a divine slow love song in, towards the end –Only Teardrops Fall is a song Stephen Stills voice has been waiting for, for a very long time and Kenny Wayne Shepherd shows Clapton how to play the Blues in the background.
With a zillion songs available to cover, I was intrigued by their choices of the Stooges Search and Destroy; which kind of works in a Garage Rock kind of way; but what possessed Stills to include Rockin’ in the Free World is simply mystifying. Obviously it’s a great song; and one that sounds like it will make an amazing encore number when they play live; but a lick for lick cover with Stephen never managing to match the bile in the original; is always going to fall victim to unfavourable comparisons.
All in all I’ve absolutely loved this album; bar that one exception and can’t wait to see this full throttle Supergroup play live.
Released worldwide August 26th
The Rocking Magpie 