Guitar prodigy Laurence Jones coming off age with his more dark, mature and heavily Hendrix influenced album till today. Taking distance from the pretty boy-blues newcomer-prodigy , Jones comes up with a heavier sound focusing on songs as much as his playing that moves more to classic rock paths, incorporating his blues influence. "Im gone" is a fine example of the new direction. His songwriting skill finds its way out in the groovy, up tempo rocker. "Lonely road" shows he is not a one dimensional blues man but has an ear for melody and groove. IN this, his 8th album he lets his inner FREE, BAD COMPANY, CREAM self out and rocks hard and steady."Don't you leave me this way" has the early Frank Marino name all over it,or shall i say Hendrix, a slow , groovy blues rocker with an addictive chorus.The tight rhythm section that helpsJones build up his feverish riffs consists of bassist Jack Alexander Timmis (Virgil & The Accelerators) and drummer Ash Sheehan (Glenn Hughes, Tony Iommi, The Twang) creating a real power trion, in the form of BBM, BWL, CREAM, Pat Travers , Frank Marino with groove, solid rhythms and massive sound.
Gary Moore is another influence giving the more rocking songs his signature and at the bottom end all things lead to Jimi Hendrix without copying , just adding to Jones skills and own musical ambitions."Lost and broken' is exactly this kind of mix between 60s and 80s , blues and hard rock and it pays off well.Take control" is among the songs that moves away the blues and come closer to the Hard rock/FM rock territory successfully With a great chorus and some astonishing 70s inspired heavy rock guitar work."Out in the distance" continues flirting with Hard rock with a grooy section reminiscent of LED ZEPPELIN and Gary Moore early blues days.He proves his point that classic blues, Hard rock and guitar wizardry can be combined successfully at the feverish, stomping rocker "Woman", a guitar driven, riff oriented hard rock song that winks at blues .
The album closes with a blistering heavy rock blues song "You're not alone" and in my humble opinion Jones has a lot in common with the trios of Frank Marino and WBL and mostly with the second one, as the groove of his band accompanies excellent his Hendrix inspired guitar playing. Jones dealing with Chron's diseas knows trhe burdens of life, first hand from a young age. This unhappy medical condition got him to the skin of the blues and hardship, earlier and in more depth than a lot of the other blues players around the world, giving additional credibility to his music and stories. A great album, heavy, rocking and bluesy when it needs to be.
7,5
Comments