Tom Gillam
Good For You
Classic Country-Rock makes a comeback and the world is a better place for it.
Sometimes I can become a bit of a music-snob; only ‘enjoying’ albums from the ‘next big thing’ or (worse) bands or singers that the general public will never get to hear; but occasionally something comes along that reminds me that music is just be enjoyed because it is enjoyable!
I’d played this album a few times in my office and had quite enjoyed it; then I had to make a six hour car journey and that is when GOOD FOR YOU came into it’s own.
This is perfect driving music in the way Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, The Eagles or even the Allman Brothers were in my younger days; and still all get played on similar journeys.
Tom Gillam has a warm and friendly voice and his band can certainly hold their own with any of the afore mentioned bands; plus the subject matter of the songs hardly ever strays from the classic formula of boy meets girl/boy falls in love/boy gets dumped and that’s meant as a good thing.
Album opener Right Here/Right Now is a good old fashioned Blue collar Rock and Roller that sets the mood just perfectly and the grown up love song Last Night on Earth straddles Springsteen and Tim McGraw territory with the greatest of ease.
Put Me in the Ground opens with some sweet and gnarly bottle neck guitar before Gillam pounds his chest and pretends to be an Alpha Male in a world strewn with Rock and Roll causalities. I can just picture the lighting and pyrotechnics that will accompany this song when performed live.
Things slow down for the Southern swamp encrusted Something’s Not Right; and the scary harmonica playing from label mate Lincoln Durham will send shivers down your spine on this tale of cheating and insecurities.
The album ends on another high; as One More Time sounds like a band who know exactly how good they are and give us some mighty fine boogie in the best traditions of Memphis and Nashville.
The Rocking Magpie 