Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Walkin' Through Fire reviewed by Steve Jones

Walkin' Through Fire 
Scott Ellison
JSE Records
15 tracks

Ellison offers up 15 original tracks here.  With vocals as gravelly and strained as Bob Dylan's, he plunders his way through these tracks and takes no prisoners.  Some great guitar and nice arrangements abound, and you'll feel driven to your feet to dance.

Swinging, funky stuff here. He opens with the funked up "Hits Like Dynamite" and makes you want to dance more with tracks like "No Way to Live" and "Sweet Thunder".  He gets a little country on with cuts like "You Talk Too Much".  All throughout one will find themselves appreciating his distinct guitar sound and the arranging.  "Trouble Times" is a deliciously evil sounding track that talks of societal demise.  The title track is a really nicely arranged song, too.

Scott sings and plays guitar, slide, and bass on 5 tracks with a listing of "all other instruments by Walt".  The other tracks feature Charles Tuberville on guitar and bass, Spencer Sutton on piano and B3, and Jalon Brown on drums and percussion.  The Hot Tamale Horns are also featured.

If one is not taken aback by his Dylanesque vocals (I was not), you will find this to be quite the CD.  Big guitar sounds, deep arrangements, driving beats and cool new songs.  Quite the interesting album!!!