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Song)’ is a tale of an aging cowboy who lost his eyesight in a riding accident, but
not the vistas and values of his memories and especially, the love of his life. The
affecting and sweeping melancholic slowburner ‘Save Me, From Myself’, is a starkly
revealing autobiographic plea for salvation and redemption from Jimmie.
Recommended!
Brian Harman.
Dudley Taft—Guitar Kingdom—Independent
Washington born Dudley spent his youth in the Mid-
west; he studied at Berklee College of Music. It was
while he was there he and his friend Trey Anastasio
formed the band Space Antelope. As he became more
involved in his music he went on to form the bands
Sweet Water, Second Coming and Omniviod. He formed
The Dudley Taft Band in two thousand and seven. In the
autumn of two thousand and thirteen he and family
moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nowadays most of his albums are recorded in his Muchmore, home studio, al-
though, this album his eighth, was recorded in both his Muchmore studios in
Cincinnati, Ohio and in Studio Faust, Prague, in The Czech Republic. Ten of the
eleven numbers here are Dudley originals, the eleventh ‘A Quitter Never Wins’, is
written by Tinsley Ellis and Margaret Sampson. Dudley also produced the album.
Joining Dudley; lead guitar and vocals, in the studio are; Kasey Williams; bass, Alex
Dugan and Nick Owisanka; drums and Andy Smith on keyboards. Dudley is an out
and out blues rocker with the emphasis on the heavy side, bringing forth happy
memories of the glory days of the heavy bass based music of the seventies. The
opener, ‘Black And Blue’, is a dark ode to a lost love, filled with an appealing
mixture of menacing and mellow swinging guitar passages backed with solid but
not hammering drum work, while Dudley’s soft but gruff, enticing vocals appear to
glide across the music.
On the solid, footapper ‘Old School Rocking’, Dudley reminisces about the “good
old days”, when Hard Rock ruled the airwaves and brash, energetic guitars and
pounding drums reigned. His attractive playing and enticing solos easily draw you
in. ‘Oil And Water’, deals with opposites attracting and here we have fluidly enjoy-
able, hints of Focus, Hendrix and Deep Purple.
The softer, slowburning, flowing ‘Still Burning’, features an almost reticent organ,
with rising, respectful blues-infused guitar passages. The enticingly martial,
marching guitars and percussion of ‘Guitar Kingdom’, possess elements of Deep
Purple and Motorhead that certainly get your head nodding. The ringing, whirling