Mr. Mick Rhodes of Claremount, Cali, sent me his album ‘Til I Am Dust amd it is exhaustingly excellent. And I will review but before I do, two songs have immediately blown me away.
On his myspace Mick lists his influences as: “The sky, the ocean, family, aging, illness, love, marriage, vacuum tubes, struggle, jealosy, parenthood, joy, death, fear, sex, time … and the Replacements”.
So the first song that is blowing me is a fully alive cover of “Waitress In The Sky” -which figures. But the next one, “I Shoulda Just Danced With You” which seems to belie his claim as a roots rocker. I mean, they know the Blasters but they aren’t the Blasters.
It is still pretty wonderful. Built around a solid harmonica and a smooth organ, it is a straight up no chaser rocker except… Read back… Smooth organ? Yeah, this ain’t Booker T. This is a new wavey take on rock and roll and even with the great harmonica solo around the mid way point, it really is too shiny and gleaning to be considered root. Call it rootsy, tip your hat to Mick Rhodes and hie thee to his myspace: