Album Review - 'Freedom Bound', Red Butler

Hello,

First off, I'd like to say thank you for the hugely positive response from my last post about Deafh, its been great to see so may people support the blog.

Today I will be talking about a young blues band that go by the name of Red Butler. An East Sussex based band that are made up of Jane Pearce (vocals), Alex Butler (guitar), Steve Eveleigh (bass) and Charlie Simpson (drums). This band have been one to look out for in the blues scene in the past year and now they have finally released their album.

The band have been vigorously touring Sussex and afar for gigs and festivals such as The Great British R&B Festival in Colne, which to me, for a band that have been together two years is a massive achievement to get into the blues scene so effectively and quickly. This is one of the reasons the album has been largely anticipated by many fans of the band.

The album 'Freedom Bound' is definitely a great blues/rock album which has been produced very well. Everything in the album seems to be in its right place. They have left one of their strongest songs 'Freedom Bound' till last on the album which is a great move as most albums tend to whither a little bit towards the end of an record. Not this one though, its ends with a very emotional and powerful song, not to say the least about the guitar solo! Oooo...that killer guitar solo!

If you enjoy guitar solos, then this is record is loaded with them! Alex Butler is the man with the riffs. He created them himself and is an exceptionally talented guitarist. The range of the musicality in the album keeps the momentum going with up-tempo songs such as "Danger Zone" and "Young and Free". Then can take it right down with the very emotional "River of Smoke" which is one of my personal favourites just for the raw emotion of the song, also Jane's singing in this song is off the scale. 

The song "Hoodoo" demonstrates Alex's guitar skills with some impressive slide work. Its very difficult to create some of the notes he plays in this track, including towards the end, but it creates a great delta blues vibe for the album. I also enjoy listening to how solid the bass and drums are together, locked in tight, keeping that train rolling.

Each song on the album has been extensively worked on for the past year or so and it really shows that they have put a lot of time and energy into this album and the songs they have created. When I hear the songs and think that they are mostly all original, I think that this band are very creative and have a great career ahead of them! So keep an eye out for them at one of their gigs or through their social pages (links below). 

The songs to check out on this album if you haven't got time to listen to the whole song are "Danger Zone", "River of Smoke", "Freedom Bound" and "Young and Free". I'm looking forward to seeing what the band has to offer in the next few years, they deserve it for the effort they put in too! Keep an eye out for these guys! 

Thanks for reading and until next time!

Lewis 

Website: http://www.redbutlermusic.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redbutlermusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/redbutlermusic

Instagram: http://instagram.com/REDBUTLERMUSIC

Book Review - Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis

Hello!

Welcome to blog post number 16! Today I will be sharing with you something a little different to what I normally post about. I like to change things up a bit every now and again and so I thought a book review (still music related) would be great to tell you all about.

The book I am talking about today is the biography of Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis. He goes through his life as a child, teenager and musician. His journey is one that I think he lucky to still live, but his events make it one of the best biographies ive read to date.

I have read this book twice and the life events still shock me as to what he has done. A lot of this book does come across drugs and women, but you'd expect that with Anthony in his younger years. I don't want to give too muvh away,  but if you like the Red Hot Chili Peppers then you'll love this book. Its also showing the key events that happened to the band in the time they've been together such as Hillel Slovaks death, John leaving the band and coming back and how they managed to bounce back from nearly falling apart as a band. All those events from how Anthony saw them and portrayed it in his mind.




One thing that does get a little repetitive is the drug usage and rehabilitations that Anthony goes through. A lot of it is what he used during this tour and what he could deal for this tour. He'd get too drugged up to perform or write songs, so he gets help, gets off the drugs and then goes onto them again. Although this is his life and its quite harrowing to think the amount of times he put his body through all that, for the reader it does get a little repetitive.  

Reading this book you keep thinking to yourself "how are you still alive?", one example of this was when him and flea were younger (spolier alert), they loved jumping off roofs into pools and one day Anthony decided to go to the next level and go higher to 6 stories high. Jumped off, misjudged the landing and landed on bare concrete breaking his back and yet is still performing today as if he hadn't nearly snapped his back in two. Incredible. 

A lot of the stories are like this, you keep thinking "if this was anyone else,  they would be dead". So the life events keep the book going and there really isn't a dull moment. Again this is mostly for Chili fans as there are sections about the writing process with An thing going in to detail about why he wrote that particular song etc.

If you haven't read this book yet and have been on the fence, its a brilliant read and with summer knocking on our door its definitely a great read on holiday too.

If you enjoyed this blog, there is the email subscription to which you get an email when I post something new (so no spam dont worry) and you can follow me on various sites following the fancy buttons on the top right on the page. 

Thank you and until next time.

Lewis

Amazon book link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scar-Tissue-Anthony-Kiedis/dp/0751535664/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403173213&sr=8-1&keywords=scar+tissue