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MP3 J.J. Vicars - Heartland
10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Heartland Rock, ROCK: Hard Rock
Details:
On his third disc Texas-reared guitarslinger J.J. Vicars goes up north for a ride through the heartland of America and comes face to face with her dark side,and his own. Inspired by an intoxicated mix of The Stones,Humble Pie,AC/DC,Oscar Wilde,Charles Bukowski and ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS with shades of GIMME BACK MY BULLETS-era Skynyrd.
Fitting for an album named ''heartland'' it kicks off with the Mellencamp-tinged ONE OF THESE DAYS. Snarling electric guitar doubled with acoustic lays into a mid-tempo pocket and you can see the open highway stretchd out ahead. The lyric tells the tale of a young man wandering far from home,down to his last but enjoying his freewheeling adventure.
BUSTIN'' MY ASS is a hard driving rocker,typical J.J. Vicars fare. Driving guitar and vocal rail against the seeming imprisonment of a dead-end job. Blazing solo at the end takes it out in full glory.
HUNGRY FOR YOUR TOUCH dips back into the Blues yearning for the company of a certain young woman. One of the few songs written about a particular person but he won''t say who. The brief description "...the finest eyes/hair like the evil Medusa..." says she must have been intoxicating to look at. A haunting solo at the end drives the point home.
LOVE OR LUST is more lust than love. Another over-the-top blazing rocker with a cute play on words at the end it''s 2 1/2 minutes of
Rock''n''Roll swagger.
BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH brings it back to the dark underside hinted at in the begining. Remenicent of Keith Richard''s solo work the sparse and menacing groove underscores the discontent of wasting time with whiners and losers. Ghostly slide guitar further puncuates the lament.
Inspired by a daily dose of several Big Gulp-size gin & tonics in front of ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS, odd coming from someone who usually despises watching television calling it ''brain rot'', JET SET is a tongue-in-cheek peaon to ''the Rock ''n'' Roll lifestyle''. A vaguely Ted Nugent guitar riff and psuedo-Metal solos couch three verses describing the elegantly wasted rocker in all his bleary-eyed glory trying to ''...get to work on time...'' One foot in the gutter and one foot in the grave,shades covering bloodshot eyes on the way to the gig before another after show party.
EMPTY SILENCE quiets things down for a moment. A soft minor key ballad of loss and loneliness it dips into an altogether different Indiana music icon''s bag. During the ending solo J.J. pays tribute to Indianapolis Jazz legend Wes Montgomery with some beautifully executed thumbed octaves.
All of the anger and frustration that had been hinted at earlier is finally summed up and given a single focused release in the catharcic FAREWELL AND GOODBYE. A guitar riff worthy of AC/DC''s LET THERE BE ROCK album the lyric rails against the ''plastic,phony inhumanity'' that had grown up in the country in recent years The explosion of suburbs,strip malls,theme restaraunts and all the other trappings of an overly ''safe'',isolated and empty existence are unapologetically targeted as the source of discontent and alienation that have run rampant. "An artist''s job is to realize the world as he see it not reform it as he knows it," wrote Oscar Wilde and this is what J.J. saw when as a young man he returned to the country and wandered the Heartland,a shallow and empty way of life that robbed the country of its real culture and the people of their humanity. His ending solo offers no answers,it merely restates the restless confusion.
After the rage and fury comes the receeding and the calm. PICK UP THE PIECES gives voice to the soft resolution to move on and go forward as best as can be done. The point has been made,the ugly truth confronted. The rage no longer serves a purpose. The tired and weary hero must accept what he''s seen and experieced for what it is and must now about his own business. "...sometimes there''s nothing left to say..." and so he goes back to what he does best and let''s his guitar do the talking for him. With a slight nod to Tommy Bolin''s WILD DOGS mournful slide guitar picks it up and ''takes it home''. Halfway through Dickey Betts/Gary Rossington styled solo comes in to propel things forward until both guitars dovetail seamlessly out at the end. J.J. claims that this ending solo is his favorite piece on the album and the only one he still listens to.
Every good rocker knows to go out ith a bang and not a whimper and that''s exactly what h does on SPINNIN'' MY WHEELS. Taking Keith Richard''s GIMME SHELTER riff and reworking it into his own he once more contemplates what he''s seen,this time not with anger and rage but with swagger and bravado,with a mischevious grin and a continental flair. The kid is back.
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