![]() The driving drums and the intensive guitar work on “The Devil” provide the decidedly elegance of a playful blues piece, the expressiveness of which would fit just as well with Aerosmith or the Black Crowes. The successful introductory track is followed by “Left In The Dust”, which should actually be at the top of a set list, as is usual with a driving rhythm number with expressive riffs, and by the “bubbling power” of a fuzz pedal - as Taft notes - is decisively influenced. The opener and title track "Cosmic Radio", a radio-compatible hard rock song, which can definitely be seen as a good example of Taft's consistent songwriting qualities, is an example of the style often described as Seattle or grunge blues. Taft, who was born in 1966, has to assume a hard-working energy output, because the production of the current, self-written tracks, including engineering and mixing, is largely self-directed. In the Muchmore Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio, six albums have been made since then, with the second new long player “Cosmic Radio” being recorded within a year of “Simple Life”. The American guitarist and singer Dudley Taft anticipated his production independence back in 2013 when he took over the recording studio from Peter Frampton. If you are curious about how Hendrix might have sounded if he’d stayed around long enough to jam with Kurt Cobain, check this one out. Similarly, The End Of The Blues is a cleverly executed take on a conventional minor chord progression. It’s nothing blues lovers won’t have heard thousands of times before but done supremely well. But the album’s highlight – to my ears anyway - is Going Away Baby, the Jimmy Rogers song, which is of course a paint by numbers 12 bar. If you want to cut to the chase, listen to All For One, where the solo work is evident homage to the Voodoo Chile himself, right down to the suppressed feedback, or the shades of Nirvana to be heard on One In A Billion. But as a piano ballad vaguely reminiscent of Queen, featuring backing vocals from Taft’s daughter Ashley Charmae, it is the least representative track in this entire package. An example of the latter is I Will Always Love You, which readers will be pleased to learn is not a Celine Dion cover. This guy has the master’s chops, while being sufficiently inventive to inject originality into a format that has been done to death for 50 years, through the inclusion of grunge and even pop elements. But much in music has happened since, as evidenced by Seattle-based Dudley Taft. ![]() Half a century after his death, Jimi Hendrix is still inspiring grown men to pick up Stratocasters and record albums that clearly bear his imprint. ![]()
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