Band : Kevin Costner & Modern West
Album title : Kevin Costner & Modern West
Label : E.A.R. Music - Edel
Distributor : V2
Release date : 01/03/2010
Release : CD

When I first saw this album, or rather the download promo, the first thing that went through my mind was, “Hey, some clever kids simply took the name of a well-known actor for their band!”. So imagine my mild surprise that Kevin Costner…yep, the actor…actually fronts this band, which he formed in 2007 at after his wife Catherine encouraged him to reconnect musically with guitarist John Coinman (don’t know exactly where that fits into his career, but Coinman is apparently part of Costner’s past, and anyone interested enough to filter the information on the man’s page at Wikipedia is free to do so : just google “Kevin Costner wikipedia”, and you’ve got the page in question).

John immediately jumped to the occasion, and went out in search of a band starting with bassist Blair Forward (whom was in Costner’s one-time band). Followed lead guitarist & producer Teddy Morgan, drummer Larry Cobb and guitarist/backing vocalist Park Chisholm and a series of rehearsals where a set of new originals mixed with some old-time favourites made up an sufficient amount for a full-length show. What with Kevin’s profile, the band (enhanced by fiddle players Bobby Yang and Luka Bulla whenever they weren’t out with their own bands) soon (October 2007) set out on a worldwide tour. They released their first album, Untold Truths, on November 1, 2008 through Universal South Records. With intervals (in the meantime Kevin was shooting pictures…because he’s still an actor, see!?) the world tour continued, ending in Germany in late October 2009. During December 2009, the band was back in the studio, recording the songs for the new album, currently only available in Europe, where the band started its promotion of the album earlier in March (by the time you read this, the band already played their last gig on this lap of their Tour in Nurnberg, on March 26 – The US is up next).

You wonder what kind of music this band plays? Well baby, that be good ole Country Rock…of the more lively variety too! Plenty of lead guitar play and nice underlaying intricacies (added fiddle, organ, interplay between the guitarists) which make the casual listener want to hear out the album from start to finish. There’s a couple of calmer moments too, the first being the duet with Sara Beck during “Let Me Be The One”, the second is album closer “The Way That You Love Me”….and then there’s also “All I Want From You” and “Top Down”. Well, it’s the closer of our 11-track download promo anyway! Somehow the track-listing there don’t quite comply with the one given on either the band’s own website (kevincostnerandmodernwest.com) or myspace.com/kevincostnerandmodernwest…where you’ll find no less than 6 of the new album’s songs (including the ballads “Let Me Be The One” and “The Way That You Love Me”) posted alongside 4 off the debut. Somehow I had thought I would recognize Costner’s voice more rapidly (I mean, from an actor which you highly respect, you would expect such a thing, right?), but apparently a man’s acting voice doesn’t always sound the same as his singing voice (which is a bit on the hoarse side)! Still, the recognition factor increases with each  time you go through the set!  By the way, in Europe the album is available as 11-track regular jewel case edition, or as 12-track download from iTunes (bonus track “The Angels Came Down”). Not sure whén the album will be available in the US!

83/100

Tony.