| Cry Of Love - 'Brother'
Columbia Records, #53404
Songlist:
Highway Jones
Pretty As You Please
Bad Thing
Too Cold In The Winter
Hand Me Down
Gotta Love Me
Carnival
Drive It Home
Peace Pipe
Saving Grace
Produced by John Custer
I like these guys a lot, although there's hardly anything real original here.
They're a total throwback to the 70's - the current hit "Bad Thing" is
basically a rewrite of Duke And The Driver's "What You Got (Sure's Good)",
also a bit reminiscient of Grand Funk Railroad. And "Highway Jones" is the
best Robin Trower ripoff I've ever heard, sounds *just* like him! BTW,
"Peace Pipe" was the number one rock song in the country a month or two ago.
alan
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| Cry Of Love headlined the Paradise the other night, and they were hot, Hot,
HOT! It was a WBCN night and the show was being broadcast live over the
station, so the sound was superb (among the best I'd heard at the Pardise).
They opened with the driving "Gotta Love Me", and never let up for the
whole night.
Best songs included the hits "Bad Thing" and "Peace Pipe", "Too Cold In The
Winter" (dedicated to the Boston weather), and "Drive It Home" (where the
band just jammed, including snippets of Stevie Wonder, Sly & Family Stone,
and the Allman Brothers).
The whole band was even more impressive live than on record (the album is
good, but not great; but the live show was smokin'!). Singer Kelly Holland
is a cross between Paul Rodgers and Steve Marriott, and was in great form.
Even better was guitarist Audley Freed, who ripped one hot lead after
another, both cruising through some bluesy licks and ripping into the
rockers.
I can't wait to hear a tape of the show, it's a keeper!!!
alan
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| Cry Of Love Delivers Serious Blues Rock
by Steve Morse
Boston Globe, January 13th, 1994
Arena managers are starved for new rock stars - and the record
industry is working overtime to oblige. The problem is that most bands spit
out by the industry's assembly line are lucky to ever headline clubs, let
alone arenas. Then along comes a band like Cry Of Love, which is already
opening arena dates for Aerosmith and seems a sure bet for stardom.
The North Carolina-based group, currently hot with the singles "Peace
Pipe" and "Bad Thing", offers a hard-rock pastiche of sound colors from
past and present arena stars Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Aerosmith, Jimi
Hendrix, the Allman Brothers (Cry Of Love did snippets of the Allmans' "In
Memory Of Elizabeth Reed") and Led Zeppelin. In short, blues rock with
serious, kick-butt intent.
The amazing thing is that Cry Of Love - named for a Jimi Hendrix song
- puts it all together so admirably. "They're a real 70's derivative, but they
made a good record that sounds great on the radio", said WBCN disk jockey
Mark Parenteau, standing in the packed audience at Tuesday's 'BCN-sponsored
Paradise show (a break in Cry Of Love's East Coast shows with Aerosmith) that
was also broadcast live on the station.
Personally, Cry Of Love's debut album, 'Brother', get the benefit of
the doubt from this writer, but has some klutzy moments that still suggest a
band with a long way to go. The live show, however, suggests a band getting
there in a hurry.
Onstage, Cry Of Love rocked hard with a rawness - an almost
Soundgarden-like intensity at times - that made the album seem tame. Wiry
and wired guitarist Audley Freed slammed out riffs with ferocious glee,
helped by piston-driving drummer Jason Patterson and beat-popping bassist
Robert Kearns. They affixed a near-metal edge to "Too Cold In The Winter"
and the Bad Company-ish "Bad Thing". Both outshined the album versions.
The highly-skilled quartet was also unafraid to jam. "Do you mind if
we jam? That's what rock 'n' roll is all about, right?" asked singer Kelly
Holland, a capable front man and excellent rhythm guitarist.
The band showed more growth in an unrecorded new song, "Broken Toy",
a wrenching ballad about love gone sour. The only real flop was the
superficial "Highway Jones", where Holland sounded like a generic shouter:
"Finding my highway Jones, learning to shake my bones!". That was a long
way from the insightful politics of "Peace Pipe", which moved the crowd with
its message of Native American rights (singer Holland is part Cherokee). The
band still needs to reconcile its extremes, but its ascent to the arenas
seems unstoppable. The charisma is there. All else should follow.
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| I think Carnival has to be my favorite cut so far. The bass in that
song is super. Actually, the bass is the one instrument I enjoy through
the whole tape. Does anyone know if he's using a frettless bass or not?
Don't get me wrong, there is some great guitar work as well, Im just
partial to the bass. I can't decide if I like the whole tape or not,
maybe a few more times through the machine.
Jim
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| Pictures in the CD sleeve show the bassist with a Danelectro and
another shot with an old Gibson Les Paul style bass; semi-obscure,
low tech, and cool. Neither looks fretless, but they're small photos
and it's tough to tell.
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