| CD REVIEW The Keith Reid Project |
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Band : The Keith Reid Project The protagonist of this album, Keith Reid, is the same person whom formed legendary Progressive/ Symphonic Rock act Procol Harum (who became famous with their very first single, A Whiter Shade Of Pale)with singer Gary Brooker back in 1967. In that venture Keith entered as the lyricist of the band, and he's written àll lyrics for the band to date (bar the solitary cover the band did). Over the years (and with te intermittant moments that the band was simply unactive), Keith occasionally wrote some lyrics which were never used (well...that's not quite correct, see, because on July 21 last year Gary Booker And Friends performed at London's St. John's (at Smith Square) as part of a two-night celebration of the 40th anniversary of the success of A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Songs played were a mixture of songs by Brooker/ Reid which had never been recorded, never been performed live, or significantly different from their original version. Anyway, Keith clearly had quite a few songs left on the shelf, and for his first solo album he decided to contact a wide array of singer/ songwriters to give the songs the shape they would take on the album. In all, there's 8 people helping Keith out here, the most significant definitively being John Waite (The Babies, Bad English, solo artist), Chris Thompson (best known for being the voice of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, but also having ventured in several very nice projects of his own), and Southside Johnny (during the '70s this charismatically Soulful singer and band leader was, alongside Bruce Springsteen, seen as one of the defining artists at the basis of The New Jersey Sound Music Scene. He's released over 20 albums to date). The 3 aforementioned each composed/ played the music to 2 songs. Also responsable for two songs are (in order of appearance on the album) Bernie Shanahan (a singer/ songwriter who signed his first major deal – with Atlantic – in 1989, is still working as a singer/ songwriter, and worker with the likes of Alice Cooper, Michael Bolton, and Cher) and Steve Booker (an English singer, writer and producer; has written music in Nashville and has had many of his songs recorded by some of County music's biggest artists; received a BMI Most Awarded Song award for the hit song Somebody's Out There Watching", as brought by Kinleys; has recorded with and produced such artists as Nathalie Imbruglia, Marti Pellow, Heather Small, Paul Young, and is currently enjoying high success again with the N°1 hit song "Mercy", a song which he co-wrote with Duffy). Additionally (and again in chronological order of appearance on the album), Keith worked with Michael Saxell (a highly respected singer/ songwriter whom has had over 250 of his songs recorded by other artists, including Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive fame and Eric Bazillian of The Hooters), Chaz Jankel (founder member of Ian Dury And The Blockheads, and writer of all their hits in the late '70s; he's also a solo artists and writes music for other artists – he wrote Quincy Jones' worldwide hit "Ai No Corrida", for instance – and successful writer of film soundtrack music), and Terry Reid (with a career running over 40 years now in which he's had some notable successes; has toured with Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Fleedwood Mac, and The Rolling Stones to name but a few; made a classic recording of "Season Of The Witch; other great songs of his are "Friends" and the much covered Rick Kid Blues; his classic and famous The Fifth Of July album; seen by Keith as one of the remarkable voices in Rock). The song "You're The Voice", which was co-written by Chris Thompson, was made a worldwide hit in 1986 by John Farnham. The version on this album was recorded bt Thompson himself earlier that year, but has remained unreleased to this day. Stylistically, Pop Rock blends with Rock and occasional flares of Americana, Blues, Latin, and Irish Influences. Overall, The Common Thread is a very calm album (quite a few of the songs are even acoustic), and a lot of the lyrics would've stood proudly in the global Anti-War atmosphere at the end of the '60s, beginning of the '70s. Due to the different singers, you get a nice variety of vocal signatures...and where sóme might think this kinda hurts the integrity of the album as a whole, better think differently. Somehow the overall atmosphere of the music has become the common thread here (heheh...funny me using exactly thàt terminology here, uh?)...with perhaps "The Only Monkey" (performed by Chaz Jankel) with its Funky undertones and vocodered second voice being the big exception in the whole (seen as it is fàr closer to a Pop tune than any of the other material). To give the album the promotion it deserves, a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/keithreidproject) was started in early June, where you can find mp3 files of the songs "In Gods Shadow" (co-written with John Waite), "A Common Thread" (Southside Johnny), "Potters Field" (Bernie Shanahan, the song most closely to a Country-like tune) and the aforementioned "The Only Monkey"...plus more detailed info on the creators of the album. Oh, by the way, you can listen to àll songs (but in faded-out versions) at the label's website (rockville-music.de/html/the_common_thread). Personally, I find this album to be a truly grand one...one of those discs one would be inclined to put on the car stereo while taking the friends out on a ride through the countryside, or put on during a hot Summer's evening while sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, cool cocktail close at hand! 90/100 Tony. |