Blue Petal - CD Review

I know I write a lot about another Dallas based band Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians, but in this crazy world of MySpace, you really can discover a jem amongst all the musicians out here.

I first heard Blue Petal because Carter Albrecht posted one of their songs on his MySpace page. Although Carter is gone, he certainly passed along to me a taste of Blue Petal having it as his song. From there I was hooked.

With only three members of the band, Manya Repnikova vocals, guitar - Pete Anderson ketyboard, guitar - Bryan Butler guitar, harmonica they really put together a fantastic sound.
Having put out a 5 song EP so far, I really look forward to hearing more of their music. The Indie realease starts off with an incredible song only lasting 2 minutes, but Move Along is really my favorite. It captures the amazing voice of Manya Repnikova, not only a beautiful person, but a beautiful voice as well.

Turn It Around is the second song on the cd. A nice soulful song with a good acoustic sounds and some great backing vocals, it truly is a wonderful song. Heading into Night Train, we hear the nice folk sound with a slide guitar in the background. It's a great piece of work.
Next up we have Blue Balloon Girl on the cd. Sort of an Alt-Country feeling with the harmonica playing in the background. It's a good song, not sure who plays drums on this one, but it really adds a good touvh to this one.

Host is the last song on the cd and the piano is a nice intro to a great tune. Manya's voice remids me a bit of a mix between The Sundays, Harriet Wheeler and Mazzy Star's, Hope Sandoval. Both have a different style and Manya sort of sits right between the two.
You can sample the cd at either of these two myspace pages Blue Petal's Myspace Page or Manya's MySpace Page. Manya's page also has a great song Good and Faithful Servant which will be appearing on a compilation cd some time this year. I just love it and wish I had a copy on my iPod today.

Check them out for sure. I see them hitting it big in the coming years. There's a lot of talent in Manya and the band.

Go out to iTunes or their MySpace page and pick this one up for sure.

Lenny Kravitz - Love Revolution CD Review

Lenny is back to his old classic self from the days of Let Love Rule. Love Revoltion kicks of a nice vibe that gets you going right from the start. It's down to simple rockin stuff pretty much. Bring It On keeps the simple beat rock going. It's a raw sound but just what I like.

It almost has a bit of a strange Beatles sound to it in some odd way. Good Morning comes in next and is what really reminds me of something out of the Beatles Catalog. Love Love Love comes up next and continues the continuous high energy feeling.

Things slow down a bit at I'll Be Waiting. It almost at the start reminds me of something out of Flight of the Conchords. It's a nice simple, softer song, quit enjoyable. The rest of the cd is really a mix of high energy songs and ballads. A little funk in the rock and here we go.

I really like the sound much more that the last cd Lenny put out. I certainly would go out and pick this one up or download it for sure.

The cd tracks are:

Love Revolution Songs
1. Love Revolution
2. Bring It On
3. Good Morning
4. Love Love Love
5. If You Want It
6. I’ll Be Waiting
7. Will You Marry Me
8. I Love the Rain
9. A Long and Sad Goodbye
10. Dancing Till Dawn
11. This Moment Is All There
12. A New Door
13. Back in Vietnam
14. I Want To Go Home

Lenny is heading off to Europe for a tour in May, not sure if we will see some dates coming up here before. Keep and eye out on his website at www.lennykravitz.com and get updates to what's happening.

Enjoy!

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static - Review

For those of you who are big fans of Jack Johnson you certainly will be happy with the new cd. Jack adds a little of a different feature on this one and adds some electric guitar, but still it hass the same mellow tone as many of his songs from the past.

Having lived in Southern California and being exposed to the waves, sandy beaches and Jack Johnson surf movies this one fits right in. Even though I have recently moved away from my beach shack to a place in the middle of the country, Kansas City, I still miss the sun, waves and warm weather. Listening to a little Jack Johnson, closing my eyes, puts me right back there to my place of comfort.

The new cd was recorded with 100% solar power. I bought a digital copy, so I tried to help do my part a little in the process of helping the environment. It's always good to see artists take a stand and do what they can to influence others.

This cd is filled with some great tunes. They are more on the mellow side, but that's my thing. Starting off with All At Once, you feel that typical JJ beat. It's a wonderful song that sets you in the mood for the rest to come. Sleep Through The Static, the title song is add a little more beat and is a lot like Times Like These from his previous release. Hope keeps the beat up following into a nice little ballad called Angel. Enemy is kind of a day dream song that's how I feel.

If I Had Eyes was the single that was released before the rest of the cd. It's a little more electric, but a wonderful beat and mix of drums, piano and guitar in this one. Much of it it sounds like several other of Jacks songs. I guess I could say that about the whole cd. Really it has a bunch of wonderful songs. Same Girl is a nice acoustic ballad type song, short and sweet.

What You Thought You Need, Adrift, Go On are all great acoutics songs. They Do, They Don't as well as While We Wait, Monsoon and Losing Keys finish off the cd. If you bought the cd on iTunes you get a one minute funny song Goodbye.

I really love it, every song from end to end. I would highly recommend picking this one and if you haven't heard much of Jack's work, you could pick up any one of his cds and be in good shape. Gone are the days of Jack showing up at Lou's and jamming for an hour or playing the small venues. Still, it's well worth your time to get to see him perform live if you get a chance.

Enjoy!

Note from Jack:

My friends and I have just finished recording a new album called Sleep Through the Static. At this point in my life I weigh about 190 lbs and my ear hairs are getting longer. I also have a couple of kids. My wife popped them out, but I helped. Some of the songs on this album are about making babies. Some of the songs are about raising them. Some of the songs are about the world that these children will grow up in; a world of war and love, and hate, and time and space. Some of the songs are about saying goodbye to people I love and will miss.

We recorded the songs onto analog tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles. One day, JP Plunier walked into the studio and told us, "It has been 4 to 6 feet and glassy for long enough," and so we gave him a variety of wind and rain as well as sun and so on. And Robert Carranza helped to put it all in the right places.

After inviting Zach Gill to join Adam Topol, Merlo Podlewski, and myself on our last world tour, we decided to make him an official member of our gang. So our gang now has a piano player, which probably makes us much less intimidating, but Merlo, our bass player, is 6'3" so we are still confident.

All of these songs have been on my mind for a while and it is nice to share them. I am continually grateful to my wife who is typing this letter as I dictate it to her. I hope you enjoy this album.

Mahalo for listening,
Jack Johnson