An album by guitarist/ singer Leslie West is always a joy to come across, except when you're a music critic and know that the website you work for has never before done a review of the man's previous work. Because, you see, that means I have t bring up the man's career from the beginning, doesn't it? Well, I promise to not elaborate too much, because West's history goes back quite a while!
You see, this legendary guitarist was born in New York City on October 22, 1942 (which means his 68th birthday will be coming up real soon) under the name of Leslie Weinstein, a name he changed when his parents divorced. His music career began in the Rhythm 'n' Blues/ Blue-eyed Soul-Rock band The Vagrants, who went on to score minor hits in the Eastern US with their singles “I Can't Make A Friend” (released in 1966) and a cover of Otis Redding's “Respect” (1967). Those familiar with the goings-on in the music business of those days will tell you, that it was more than common practice for bands to release singles, and that these rarely resulted to full-length albums. And, let's not forget to mention that, back then, vinyl and magnetic tape were the only music carriers about! Live, the band went on to play support gigs for The Who and Cream, and when West came across the music if Jimi Hendrix, he decided to devote the remainder of his life to creating his music (rather than looking at it as a fun thing to do)! The Vagrants actually recorded and released quite a few singles, and some of those were produced by Felix Pappalardi (worked on Cream's legendary Disraeli Gears album), whom West would strike a friendship with. (for the interested : a compilation was eventually made of The Vagrants' material, and released as The Great Lost Album, in 1986)
In 1969 this friendship in the foundation of the pioneering Hard Rock act Mountain (which was also the title of West's debut solo album, released that same year)!, which was almost instantly bombarded with the title “The louder version of Cream” from the get-go, and later recognized as one of the forerunners of Heavy Metal music. With keyboardist Steve Knight and drummer N.D. Smart, the band performed at the legendary Woodstock festival, and replaced the drummer for Corky Laing after that memorable gig. In that classic line-up, the band went on to release the full-length studio recordings (mind you, the music business had already changed its working methods by then, switching to releasing albums far quicker, once they got convinced of a band's capacities) Climbing! (1970, from which the cult hit “Mississippi Queen” was culled – reached #21 on the US Billboard and #4 in the Canadian charts) and Nantucket Sleighride (1971), which were followed by the album Flowers Of Evil (also issued in 1971, it consisted partially of live recordings). Both of the band's first albums had done pretty well, reaching #17 and #16 respectively, and both garnering a Gold certificate (if I'm not mistaken, back then that would've meant sales exceeding half a million copies).
With Mountain breaking up, West and Laing went on to make two studio and one live album (1972's Why Dontcha, 1973's Whatever Turns You On, and 1974's Live 'n' Kinkin'), with Cream's Jack Bruce as their bassist. Mountain actually reformed in 1973, but broke up again in late 1974, leaving us another album with 1974's Avalanche. Since 1981 however, the band has continued to reform, tour and record on a regular basis, delivering, over the years, the albums Go For Your Life (1985), Man's World (1995), Mystic Fire (2002) and Masters Of War (2007). Meanwhile, and back to the seventies, West went back to a solo career for a while, releasing the 1975 and 1976 albums The Great Fatsby and The Leslie West Band. After that, almost a decade of inactivity (at least on the release front) followed, with West picking up his solo carer again after the activity which followed Mountain's 1985 album release. During the rest of the '80s followed the studio albums Theme (1988) and Alligator (1989) and the live Night Of The Guitar – Live! (also 1989). As with Mountain, West's solo career however would prove to continue in bursts, and it would take West a coupe of years to return to the stage, which eventually resulted in the 1993 Live album, and ensuing studio albums Dodgin' The Dirt (1994) and As Phat As It Gets (1999). In the new millennium, West has released the following solo albums : Blues To Die For (2003), Guitarded (2005), Got Blooze (2005), Blue Me (2006), Unusual Suspects (2011) and with Still Climbing a 13th studio album is about to come out at the end of this month (Oct. 2013)!
Okay, so far for the history lesson (those interested in more should read the man's page at Wikipedia, from which the material for the above was culled, by the way), now let's get down to the album! For his previous album, 2011's Unusual Suspects (the debut release for the Mascot Label Group), West had invited a bunch of friends (including Slash, Zakk Wylde, Steve Lukather, Joe Bonamassa and Billy Gibbons) into the studio to guest on some of the tracks, and that album having some success, he decided to do the same again on this follow-up. By the way, this is a good moment to stand still at the fact that we're fortunate that there is this follow-up album to listen to in the first place. You see, after the recording sessions of that previous album, West had fallen into a coma due to his diabetes illness, and his wife Jenni had to make the decision to have the surgeon amputate most of West's right leg, or leave him to die. In his own good-natured manner, West has been known to say he was lucky it was just his leg, because if it had been one of his hands, or his music-making career would've been over for sure. In fact, after his amputation he wasn't sure whether he even wanted to continue, but a month later he was paying at the Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp in NYC, and he never turned back to such gloomy thoughts after! Different from the previous album, is that in wanting to make his guitar sound as big as he himself looks (and he's a huge man, believe me), he used four of his Dean signature guitars with his Mountain Of Tone humbucking pickups, which he plugged into his Blackstar amps – no pedals – and turned 'em up loud and raw. In fact, he played some of the songs to Slash in that set-up at home, and the latter was recorded to have said, “That, is as heavy as it gets!”
For sure, “heavy” is the tone in which the album was made, but there's some differentiations to take in account anyway, as the songs are diverse in musical background, going from more laid-back Blues to in-your-face Hard Rock with Metal tinges. The album, co-produced by West and Mike “Metal” Goldberg (whom engineered the recordings), was mixed by Mike Frazer (known from past work with Metallica, AC/DC, Bad Company, Rush, Joe Satriani, and many more), except for the tracks “Tales Of Woe” and West's solo rendition of “Rev Jones Time (Somewhere Over The Rainbow)” (which is also the album's closer, by the way)! Guests on the album are (in order of appearance) Mark Tremonti (additional vocals on album opener “Dyin' Since The Day I Was Born”), Johnny Winter (extra guitar on the ensuing “Busted, Disgusted Or Dead”), Dee Snider (extra vocals on “Feeling Good” - a song written by British actor/ musician Anthony Newley, which was made famous by Steve Winwood's band Traffic), Jonny Lang (both guitar & vocals on the Percy Sledge cover “When A Man Loves A Woman” - and the two cut the song side-by-side in the studio), and Dylan Rose (guitar solo on “Don't Ever Let Me Go”).
The lyrics on the album are a mirror of what West has been goin' thru' in the past few years, with part of the songs' lyrics dealing with the adversities of life...and overcoming 'em...and the other part being more romantic, a reflection on the love he feels for his wife, whom he married on-stage at the 40th Anniversary Woodstock festival in 2009. In essence, this whole album is a work of love, you know, a love for West's immediate family, a love for his close friends...and a love or the music he plays and creates! And that, more than anything, can be heard in the music on the album! Yeah...