Blues Bureau Int'l
2007
Weary And Wired
About This Album
The ex-Black Crowes guitarist's first solo album in five years is far more wired than weary, which is certainly a good thing. Rejoining musicians from his pre-Crows years in the band Burning Tree (bassist Mark "Muddy" Dutton and drummer Doni Gray), Ford strips down to a basic trio format, although one loose enough to allow horns, keyboards, and background singers to flesh out the sound as needed. Ford generally discards the country that informed his first disc for a deceptively simple, bluesy rocking attack that growls and roars. The opening "Featherweight Dreamland" sounds like '70s-era Stones, just over three minutes of gnarly chords meshed with tough maracas and piano driving the trashy overdubbed guitars. The disc then shifts to a Southern rock-blues sensibility (the rugged "1000 Ways") combined with a substantial Neil Young influence. The latter is particularly noticeable on the eight-and-a-half minute "Smoke Signals," a thinly veiled rewrite of "Cowgirl in the Sand," right down to the loping bass and dramatically taut guitar solo. The following "Greazy Chicken" lays on the funk with horns and B-3 slathered over the slow-boil swampy instrumental and Ford's wah-wah pedal and slide in full flower.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,10,11,13,14 and 15)

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