photo: Fotovitamina
Longtime followers of the local scene may remember guitarist Kevin Henderson from his days in What Went Wrong. He’s been kicking around town (and California) for years. With this CD, it all comes together for him and his band - a great rock band in their prime. It seems like Kevin might have listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin in his life, though he only took the good parts - like Jimmy Page’s guitar style. His guitar work holds its own with anyone you care to mention, incorporating folk-based melodies (almost like fiddle tunes), Middle Eastern scales, and good ol’ fashioned blues rock into his solos.
Two of the nine tracks are instrumentals, and there is an overall very high ratio of music to vocals. It really does hearken back to those old hard rock albums, but it is far more interesting than most of that stuff. Definitely guitar bliss, from the first note to the last. Ploughed In the Stars is a good example. It’s a showpiece for some breathtaking fretwork, starting with a few minutes of instrumental magic, before giving way to his re-write of the old cowboy song, Rye Whiskey. He employs acoustic guitars to great effect on Everybody’s Saying
The rhythm section of this power trio is exemplary; in particular the Bonham-esque drums of Blake Bybke. Dorian Cacavas even wrote lyrics on two of the songs.
Recorded at Loveland, mastered by Dave Shirk, this is 5 stars all the way. From the evidence on this disc, the genre of guitar hero hard rock is hardly played out. The planets have lined up. The Swigs have arrived, and that’s a great thing.
Tunes online at MySpace.com/theswigs; The Swigs play at Grill’s Red Room April 8 and at The Hut May 28.
