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MP3 Todd Royce - Step Into The Light
11 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Electric Blues, ROCK: Funk Rock
Details:
Review by Joe Viglione / AMG - All Media Guide
Todd Royce (aka Todd Morton) hails from North Berwick, ME, and issues a solid and professional blend of pop/blues from his power trio on this 11-track CD. Though they claim Cream as a major influence, that sound really only comes through on "What I Need," a direction that would be most welcome on future work. Royce''s guitar and vocal style blend nicely with his lyrics and maintain a fine balance over the course of the 47 minutes. It''s a well thought out and perfectly constructed project, as polished as the 12-page lyric booklet that accompanies the music. The artist calls these takes "eleven mini chapters" of an autobiography "that spans the ages of 19 and 27," put together with his brother, bassist Doug Morton. Interesting that Gary Cherone of Extreme is thanked in the liner notes, as the title track, "Step into the Light," is something that would have easily fit on one of Cherone''s own albums with his former band [Van Halen]. Maybe the strongest track here, it has an intriguing riff and borderline metal crunch. Powerful and well defined, the band has that groove Spirit and Savoy Brown were able to capture in their respective heydays. Impressive that three guys are generating all this, and that they are able to easily dip into different musical bags while maintaining their core sound. They resist the opportunity to overplay, and that restraint is the key to why this disc works so well.
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BIOGRAPHY:
Todd Royce''s guitar style blends the power of rock and electric blues with a stealthy accuracy and jazz vocabulary. His singing voice moves easily from a soulful whisper to a compelling urgency. Royce has been a prominent player in New England and beyond since the early 90s, notably during his tenure with nationally known, "Eight to The Bar." He has performed and recorded throughout the U.S. with some of the finest musicians in the business, including members of Van Morisson''s band, members of the Saturday Night Live Band, and Roomful of Blues. Other noteworthy events include composition for independent films and 2 solo performances at ESPN''s X-Games.
The rhythm section on "Step into the light" has been likened to Cream and Gov''t Mule. The trio takes every opportunity to improvise as a unit (as opposed to a guitar solo over a static bass and drum groove), allowing solo sections to become intense call and response conversations between instruments, building into exciting crescendos within the framework of a song; taking the jam-band vibe into the harmonic territory of bebop & fusion and often choosing tonal colors from Texas blues and straight ahead hard rock.
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