First album for getting on for 30 years for the first couple of Southern Rock
The husband and wife in rock n roll is an odd thing.
For every White Stripes there’s a Rene and Ronata (ask your mum…) or a Sonny And Cher, and anyone who’s seen Richie Sambora and his missus Orianthi recently would probably agree that they’d be best to work separately.
Well, fear not, because this from Rossington is most definitely from the Meg and Jack end of things.
Garry Rossington and Dale Krantz-Rossington haven’t made an album together since 1988, but then they’ve been a little bit busy, you know, being in Lynyrd Skynyrd and that.
And that status means they can call on a pretty stellar cast to help them make album number three after that 28 year hiatus. “Take It On Faith” features studio band that was put together by the album’s producer and engineer, David Z (Prince, Etta James, Buddy Guy). as well as some great guests including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons who co-wrote “Good Side of Good.”
The end result is 12 songs are as classy as they are great fun.
Things range from the bluesy opener “Highway Of Love”, to the title track with its echoes of Springsteen at his most world-weary and blue collar and are frequently brilliant.
“Light A Candle” is a glorious gospel infused thing, and the aforementioned “Good Side Of Good” is slinky, funky and fun as Gibbons adds the kind of effortlessly cool guitar lick that only he can, while “Too Many Rainy Days” is the kind of blues that makes sense at 1am when you’re all alone and the girl you wanted has gone home with an idiot.
Inbetween are a couple of numbers that you might think were throwaway if they weren’t so good, “Dance While You’re Cooking” is a kind of New Orleans barroom thing, while “Something Fishy” is made simply wonderful by Dana’s smoky vocals and the knowingly suggestive lyrics (“gets up early/grabs his pole” anyone?)
As you might expect there are a couple of ballads, but “Through My Eyes” and “Where Did Love Go” are better than they have a right to be, and by the time the stomping funk of “Two Very Different Things” has finished things here, you are left wondering why they left it 28 years, but entirely glad they made it into the studio eventually.
It’s a boom time for Southern Rock, and 2016 has been full of great albums in this ballpark. Even allowing for that, “Take It On Faith” is up there with the best of them.
Rating 8/10
