Category: Reviews

FIREFALL – FRIENDS & FAMILY

Somewhere, somehow, I was reminded that a good critique starts off with something positive. Friends & Family, the new release from Colorado Music Hall of Fame band Firefall, is a hit and miss affair. That’s as positive as I can get.

For lifelong Firefall fans it’s likely a positive that they just released an album of covers from bands each of the current members were also in, shared stages with or collaborated with (the Doobie Brothers, Dan Fogelberg, Heart, the Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Loggins and Messina, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Byrds, Fleetwood Mac, Spirit, the Band, Flying Burrito Brothers, and Gram Parsons). All legends, friends and family of the current members of Firefall.

The band’s core followers are now in their seventies and are proven to NOT be fans of new music. So, an album of covers from the aforementioned acts provides nostalgia – especially since Firefall hasn’t released an album of original material worth listening to or remembered since 1980, despite attempts in 2020 (Comet) and 1992 (Messenger).

It was the singular voice and song-writing of original founding member Rick Roberts, no longer able to perform, as well as singer-songwriter Larry Burnett, who left the band in 1981, that anchored the sound of Firefall for all time – they are long gone and so is the sound that elevated the band to national popularity between 1976 and 1982.

The only original member of the band is guitarist Jock Bartley, who owns the band name; so basically all we’re talking about here is a tribute/cover band with heavyweight national league players.

Whoever sequenced the songs on this album did the band a gross injustice. Listening to Friends & Family starting at track #1 (“Listen to the Music”) made me wonder if I should keep on listening. Skip “Listen to the Music” as well as the Lynyrd Skynyrd track “Simple Man,” both of which were released earlier as lead singles. What the band lacks on both is a strong lead singer capable of carrying the weight on such classic hits.

Fleetwood Mac‘s “World Turning” and the Spirit classic “I Got A Line On You” -sung by the newest Firefall member, singer/bassist John Bisaha (the Babys) – are “hits.” A credible cover of Gram Parson‘s “Ooh Las Vegas” closes out the collection, showing the strength of the band – their ability to harmonize. This is a band that sings well together despite not having a “world class” lead singer.

Firefall isn’t what they were and never will be. The misses on Friends & Family don’t do justice to the Firefall of yore, the musicians that make up the band now, nor the original recordings. So, unless you’re a Firefall super-fan you might want to skip most of this album and enjoy the few hits it does offer.

Bryce Menchaca – Salt or SALT? Or Both? A Review

It takes a LOT to compel me to sit down and hammer out a review. “Salt,” the new EP from Denver by way of Texas singer-songwriter Bryce Menchaca did just that.

It’s Saturday morning. I’m busy following up on emails and reading my morning news and newsfeeds. I put on Spotify’s Release Radar, which for me will be 99% Colorado based music. Bryce Menchaca‘s “Flower Painted Black” starts playing. I know his name. I’ve listened to earlier releases. His voice immediately draws me into his world.

Last February, I was given access to an as yet unfinished version of “Cleaning Up,” the first single and video that came out in May. As I’ve been since first hearing about Bryce, I was impressed. The song fuses classic pop sensibilities and nuances from the do-wop and early rock and roll eras to modern indie folk pop and neo-country-soul.

The CU DENVER Music & Entertainment Industry Studies (MEIS) student comes to Denver by way of San Antonio, Texas, where his seventh generation roots extend to the founding of his home state. Over the past couple of years he’s put out a few singles that have showcased his considerably smooth voice and emerging skills as a songwriter and arranger.

His songwriting prowess is undoubtedly due to studying Commercial Songwriting as part of his college curriculum, something he says “doesn’t necessarily represent my own experiences or perspectives, it strengthens me as a songwriter.  …it forces me into a position of empathy which enhances my own songwriting.” It’s abundantly clear to me that he deserves an A for what is one of the best of 2023.

“Salt” settles in with the second cut, “Flower Painted Black,” the single that showed up in my Release Radar. Bryce’s style drops subtle hints of the acoustic pop songwriting and harmonies of Lennon & McCartney and other purveyors of the style in the sixties, along with some very nicely played acoustic guitar. The Beatles are an obvious though beautifully and thoughtfully subdued influence throughout the EP.

In it, Bryce wonders fully: “Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m to blame. Hypocrisy the cork of champagne, holding onto every little thing.“

Two hours later the final cut, “Ghost,” resonates one last time through my headphones, where I went from my studio monitors after three listens. Bryce sees himself in the image of a ghost “living inside my home, and he’s going broke.” The ghost informs him of the things he hasn’t been able to pray for or realize.

Bryce Menchaca’s voice throughout resonates emotionally, not with anguish but with near resignation. His expressiveness is subtle and clear. He is, undeniably, going through something in his life – either personally or as an outside looking in songwriter, that position of empathy.

“Salt” as a title brings two things into play. Online, SALT stands for Single and Loving It.” Salt is also a mineral, one that stings when applied to wounds, such as those embodied in the songs on this nicely paced five song, nineteen minute release – and one that can make an unpleasant situation even worse by amplifying one’s failures and faults. I’ll leave the final meaning up to you to discern.

REVIEW: JEFF FINLIN – SOUL ON THE LINE

You cannot imagine how excited I was to get some kind of message – via the Innerwebs or some otherworldly means – that Jeff Finlin, “Fin” as he’s known locally in Fort Collins, put out a new album. I mean, I was so excited my heart jumped. I immediately dived into the entire album and haven’t stopped listening since.

You can’t find this album on SPOTIFY – yet. The published release date is June 24. HOWEVER – the album was released on May 19 via Continental Record Services out of the Netherlands on Bandcamp.

Produced by Jeff Finlin.
Recorded By Darren Raddach at Stout Studios, Fort Collins, CO.
Jeff Finlin – Drums, electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, percussion, piano
Taylor Tessler – Bass
Joe V. Mcmahan – Electric guitars
Eben Grace – Electric guitars
Eric Straumanis – Electric guitars
Brian Keller – Horns, accordion

Jeff Finlin’s legacy goes back decades. In my case it’s two decades since I first heard his music. Ever since then I have anxiously and quietly pleaded, cajoled and otherwise stamped my goat hoofs for something new.

After all, for as prolific as Jeff as been in his career –  13 critically acclaimed records – I honestly thought another album would never come my way. Silly me; Jeff has basically put out an album every few years. The last, The Guru in the Girl (2017), was a measly five years ago – an eternity it seems in Jeff’s catalogue.

Soul On the Line doesn’t move far from Jeff’s established Americana trad folk-rock style that travels nicely in the car with the likes of John Hiatt, Levon Helm or Bob Dylan. A literary mastermind, Jeff’s songs have taken us on an journey of life filled with vivid imagery. In the lead single, “…we walk the line, years repeating all our tears and time. Compromise our patron saint …hangin’ out with our Soul On the Line.”

Throughout the album, Jeff touches on issues that as he’s said are about “…these extreme and harrowing times we currently live in. Everything about our existence seems to be hanging in the balance.”

In What Went Wrong he ponders, “We all get tired of waiting, waiting on ourselves, so then we go and settle, set our feet in something else and then wonder why we can’t feel nothing here at all; and we’re stuck here on the telephone …wondering what went wrong.”

The songs on this album are not about the hope for the future. Jeff’s reflections and voice are those of an aged muse, tired and worn out from the battering waves of the very life that has inspired so many of his greatest stories in song and verse.

Jeff’s Northern Colorado friends and worldwide fans will love and adore and cherish this album as yet another intimate chapter in our friend’s collection. I’d suggest first timers visit earlier albums like Epinonymous, his highly acclaimed fourth album, before diving into this one.