From riffmagazine.com on My Songs:

It’s not uncommon for an artist to live many lives through the course of a career, but few transcend boundaries quite like Sting. Having won a Grammy or Best Reggae Album of 2018 for his collaboration with Shaggy, Sting’s identity has been subject to much interpretation and change as of late. With the release of My Songs, he reminds audiences new and old of his roots and time-tested merit as a musician.

While there’s no new songs on the album, Sting managed to put a new creative twist on many of his classics. The tracklist plays like a Greatest Hits compilation, but gives listeners an extra layer of context. The 15 tracks reminds us of the work that made Sting a household name but contextualizes it in terms of his musical development over the years. He offers his evolved perspective on what his music can be.

The album begins with the familiar classic “Brand New Day.” While the original version closed out the 1999 album of the same name, it’s the perfect song to begin this record. It serves as an excellent metaphor for Sting’s stylistic renaissance on display throughout this album. The new version does away with the long introduction, opening with a rousing harmonica and piano duet. On the decidedly more upbeat take, the vocals are accompanied by an uplifting layer of synth to add a warming layer to the piece. It also doesn’t have the original’s long and psychedelic outro, going for an abrupt end as the instrumentals mute to emphasize the final lyrics: “Stand Up.”

Gordon Summer’s legacy extends past his solo work as Sting into his tenure as front man of the band The Police, and this album makes a conscious effort to reflect the many hats he has worn. The album’s fourth track reimagines “Every Breath You Take.” The track has a much more resonant and echoing start than The Police cut, highlighted by instrumentation that’s more involved in the storytelling process. Slightly sped up, it creates an uplifting mood for the nostalgic single. This happier tone is highlighted three minutes in when the harmonies in the song appear to sound crisper and more enthusiastic than in previous recordings, followed by a cleaner fade to silence.

The album also reflects the work of The Police with “Message in a Bottle.” The song is different from the first note. The opening bass gives the song a funkier feel. Followed by Sting’s deeper vocal register, it’s more focused and mature than the original. The reimagining has call-and-response harmonies and secondary vocals as the song builds and repeats the chorus, adding vocal embellishments by Sting.

The album ends with a high-energy live recording of one of classic rock’s most iconic songs, “Roxanne.” After an enthusiastic applause from an invested audience, the bass line imparts more “bounce” than the version recorded for 1978’s Outlandos D’Amour. Ad-libbed murmurs can be faintly heard beneath the percussion as the the song takes flight. Sting’s vocals are resonant this time around, as he pleads for his lover in a sustained baritone. In a stylistic twist, he avoids going into his higher range for the famous repetitious chorus of “put on the red light” creating a more grounded and focused feel to the piece.

The album’s final moments end with about 10 seconds of applause, as if to signify Sting taking one final bow at the end of this record. For an artist celebrated across several generations, Sting shows that art can never truly set in stone on My Songs.

From glidemagazine.com on Baby, Please Come Home:

Jimmie Vaughan honed his clean, note-driven guitar style with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in the ‘80s and together with his brother Stevie Ray, Robert Cray, and very few others brought a resurgence of blues to FM radio. Of course, Jimmie didn’t stay with that band long. He left to explore his own approach to the blues, one that often involved singer Lou Ann Barton and some horns to give it a ‘50s retro early R&B feel. That sound, sans Barton, is the essence of this new release, Baby, Please Come Home. It’s Jimmie sinning and playing guitar on all tracks, surrounded by his road band and good friends he’s often recorded with.

These are songs from artists that have inspired Vaughan form his earliest days of recording as a teenager in Dallas – Ft. Worth. These artists, some more recognizable than others, are Lloyd Price, Jimmy Donley, Lefty Frizzell, Richard Berry, Chuck Willis, Bill Doggett, T-Bone Walker, Etta James, Fats Domino, Gatemouth Brown, and Jimmy Reed (in order of the nine selections). It may seem curious to see a country artist like Frizzell on this list of blues and R&B artists, but Vaughan doesn’t always pay too much attention to labels. He believes music, and the blues especially is how it makes the listener feel.

Vaughan plays with four different units across these eleven tracks. On six of them he has long- time cohorts drummer George Rains, bassist Ronnie James, rhythm guitarist Billy Pitman, tenor saxophonist Greg Piccolo and baritone saxophonist Doug James. The band for “Just a Game” is the same except Mike Flanigin on the B3 instead of Pitman on rhythm guitar. Three tracks have his current touring unit augmented by a full horn section and two singers for “Be My Lovey Dovey” only. These players are Rains (who drums in all four units), Flanigin and Pitman, pianist and T. Jarrod Bonta. The five piece horn section is the three-piece Texas horns (Kaz Kazanoff, John Mills, Al Gomez) with trombonist Randy Zimmerman and trumpeter Jimmy Shortell. “Hold It” was recorded live at C-Boys Heart and Soul in Austin with just Rains and Flanigin.

Vaughan has always been widely respected for his T-Bone Walker influenced guitar playing and his vocals have, sometimes purposely, taken a back seat. Over the years though, his vocals have gotten stronger and songs like Walker’s ballad “I’m Still in Love With You” or the more raucous Fats Domino “So Glad” are quite good vocally. Just as the musicians he plays with have an innate feel for this throw-back sound, Vaughan knows his strengths and limitations. He says, “Sometimes you can sing and sometimes you can’t.” That’s an insight to the material he’s performing here; he’s in his vocal comfort zone, leaving just enough room for brief guitar or sax solos.

What comes through is what Vaughan likely intended, just a group of skilled players doing tunes and the type of music they love. It’s not about showboating at all. All extraneous matter has been effectively distilled and dismissed. This is tight, in-the-pocket playing, honoring the song, and letting the pure joy of the music flow effortlessly.

From nationalrockreview.com on 40:

Legendary Rock & Roll three-piece the Stray Cats return with their first album in 26 years.

The iconic American rock and roll trio still boasts its original lineup of Brian Setzer (guitar, vocals), Lee Rocker (bass, vocals) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums, vocals), who have reunited once again after all of this time to celebrate their landmark 40th anniversary.

The band’s latest offering was catalysed by their first North American shows in 10 years. The end result was a period of writing and recording at Blackbird Studios in Nashville late last year with producer Peter Collins and engineer Vance Powell at the helm.

From the opening notes of the aptly titled “Cat Fight (Over a Dog Like Me)”, it feels like you are opening a time capsule to the Stray Cats heyday of the early 80s. The Cats have lost nothing of the distinctive Rockabilly sound that their band’s fans have come to know and love. The rhythm is immediately recognisable, and Setzer’s infectious guitar licks just make you want to dance. This up-tempo track may well be short and sweet at 2 minutes and 14 seconds long, but it certainly sets the tone for the rest of the record.

There is a real timeless quality to each of the tracks on this record. You can almost visualise foot tapping rock and roll numbers such as “Rock It Off” and “I’ve Got Love If You Want It” being played out on an old Wurlitzer jukebox in a 50s American diner or dance hall. On the other hand, the hypnotic groove of “Cry Danger” and instrumental masterpiece “Desperado” introduce elements of surf rock to the record. The latter of which feels as though it could quite easily sit on the soundtrack to a Quentin Tarantino movie, having quality in both composition and delivery to the late great Dick Dale himself.

You can’t help but relate to the sentiment of “When Nothing’s Going Right”. Of course, we’ve all been there before. But the song gives food for thought for those who find themselves in this situation with the line ‘When nothing’s going right – go left’. A witty retort to an otherwise common scenario.

The trio ups the pace with rockabilly riot-inducing numbers such as “Three Times a Charm” and “Mean Picking Mama” which feature that distinctive and unmistakable Stray Cats sound. Each of these songs could well be future classics in the making.

The band’s eagerly anticipated return concludes with the fiery rocker “I’ll Be Looking Out For You”, which features some blistering fretwork from Setzer. It goes without saying, 40 leaves the listener thinking what took you so long?

Of course, the Stray Cats were influenced by the greats like Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Bill Haley and The Comets and Eddie Cochran. For the band’s fans, 40 may well be the cure for their ‘Summertime Blues’. It may have taken 26 years for a new Stray Cats record, but on the strength of this milestone release, it was certainly worth the wait.

40 by The Stray Cats will be released May 24 via Surfdog Records and distributed by Mascot Label Group (CD, LP, Digital) in Europe and the UK (CD, vinyl, digital). The group will be performing a run of UK dates throughout June in support of the release.

From americansongwriter.com on Love Starvation/Trombone:

When Nick Lowe was addressing the audience about what they were about to hear at a show during his recent tour, he cautioned there would be a few new songs sprinkled into the set list. But, in typical self-deprecating Lowe fashion, he reassured the audience that a) they would be short and b) they sound just like the old songs anyway, so not to worry.

He was right on both counts.

The second Lowe/Los Straitjackets studio collaboration EP features only four selections, running a total of 14 minutes. Three are new Lowe originals that, well, sound like others of his tunes, and the fourth, “Raincoat In The River,” is an obscure Phil Spector cover, initially recorded by the little known Sammy Turner. Ricky Nelson also did a version, but with its hummable and strummable pop melody, it seems like something Lowe would write.

The title track, “Love Starvation,” is jaunty pure-pop-for-now-people. The lyrics, telling of a man who needs love, are more melancholy than most of Lowe’s, sung over Los Straitjackets’ Rockpile-styled rockabilly groove. Ditto for “Trombone” about “good love gone wrong,” with the protagonist singing, “I should be on the road to glory/Not this barren, bleak terrain/I pray I’ll never be this way again,” over, you guessed it, overdubbed trombones. It hews a little close to Neil Diamond but Lowe’s amiable vocals save it from getting schlocky.

As its title implies, “Blue on Blue” is another lost love tune—that’s a theme here—as Lowe downshifts into sweet ballad mode with wry lyrics “In my mind/I’m on the end of a ball of twine/That she jerks from time to time.” The quartet of tracks is short—too short—and sweet. There may not be another “(What’s So Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding” here, but how often does an artist get another one of those?  It’s hard to say if we’ll ever see a new full-length Nick Lowe album again, but if he can squeeze out four songs a year as sturdy as these, that might satisfy fans who would surely like to hear more from a veteran singer-songwriter whose music, like his voice, never seems to age.

From allmusic.com on Space Between:

Sammy Hagar calls his band — either his fifth or sixth, depending if HSAS is counted or not — the Circle because this quartet brings him back to where he started. A look at the band’s lineup illustrates why Hagar believes this to be true.

Within the Circle, Hagar surrounds himself with some old running mates — notably, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony anchors the group, but Waboritas guitarist Vic Johnson also has a prominent place in the band, while drummer Jason Bonham provides a reminder of the Zeppelin influence on Hagar’s earliest band, Montrose.

Despite being so strongly rooted in the past, the Circle plays for the present, cranking the amps to 11 and pushing Bonham’s beat toward the forefront. The heaviness is so bracing that the hooky pair of “Bottom Line” and “No Worries” comes as somewhat of a relief halfway through the album; not only are they more melodic, they are nimble, demonstrating that this group of old pros can keep it light if they so choose. For the rest of Space Between, they choose heaviosity. It’s a forceful, powerful sound that gains a bit of depth thanks to Hagar’s inscrutable social commentary — he’s against a spoiled “Trust Fund Baby” and happy to be a “Free Man” — but for as invigorating as the sheer wallop of the Circle can be, it proves a bit exhausting in the long run.

From rockandbluesmuse.com on Flesh & Blood:

Whitesnake is one of the bands that has shaped and defined big stage arena rock for over 40 years. The new Whitesnake album, Flesh & Blood, is the band’s 13th studio effort and is due out May 10th, 2019 on the Frontiers Music SRL label. It’s an amazing maintaining-of-form from one of rock’s legendary bands that’s never lost a step. If anything, Whitesnake has gotten better since the MTV days and the songs on the album are loaded with that old school, rock star X Factor that still has the power to get 20,000 fists in the air.

Vocalist/mastermind David Coverdale has weathered the storms of changing fashions, stayed true to his sound, and has kept the band rocking houses and blowing minds all over the world with fresh, vibrant music. He is a gifted singer with proven hit single instincts who surrounds himself with the best-possible melodic rock musicians.

The current Whitesnake lineup is arguably the best in the band’s history and brings high levels of talent and rock authenticity to this era of the group. Guitarists Joel Hoekstra and Reb Beach, bassist Michael Devin, keyboardist Michele Luppi, and renowned drummer Tommy Aldridge comprise an able and focused musical unit that, with Coverdale out front, can put down real songs and crank up the kind of heat that rock fans love.

From the opening moments of the first cut on Flesh & Blood, the energetic “Good To See You Again,” it’s easy to hear why Whitesnake has remained popular and influential for so long. The band has the strong, human energy that launched the rock authority only originators can command. This music is still about fire and desire, as proper rock and roll should be. It hits listeners at hip level, making them feel and move. Rock has always been about escapism of the best kind and Flesh & Blood nails that ideal directly.

“Shut Up & Kiss Me” keeps the desire theme going strong and takes the fever up a few degrees, leaving Coverdale “tongue-tied and twisted” by the young lady in question. The guitars rip and Aldridge drives the beat as if drums alone could save the planet.

From heraldstandard.com on Orchestrating My Life:

For his latest studio release, Rick Springfield revisits 11 of his better-known tracks and one new arrangement by including a lush orchestral backing.

Upon hearing the 90-second orchestration that elegantly opens “Kristina,” the set’s first track, I was concerned that the 69-year-old singer, actor and author had become mellow with age.

But then suddenly, Springfield busts loose when delivering the infectious guitar riff that announces “I’ve Done Everything for You” on the album’s second number, finely pairing the high energy of this power pop tune (written by Sammy Hagar) with the mellifluous tones from a supportive orchestra.

The symphonic seasoning added to a number of the Australian heartthrob’s reworked tracks serves as a subtle ingredient that further enhances the charm of the hits that fans have enthusiastically lip-synced and played air guitar to for years.

Still sporting a strong singing voice, it’s great to hear Springfield belt out songs like “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “Affair of the Heart,” “Love Somebody” and “Human Touch.”

I was a little dismayed to discover that some of my personal favorite Springfield songs like “Love Is Alright Tonight,” “What Kind of Fool Am I” and “I Get Excited” were missing from the set.

However, my disappointment quickly faded after hearing the opening riff to “Jessie’s Girl.” From 1981’s album “Working Class Dog,” the song went on to become the biggest hit of his career.

Springfield gently tugs on our heartstrings with two tender ballads written in memory of his parents.

“Irreplaceable” is a new track that details Springfield’s feelings about his mother’s loss and how he still can feel her presence near as he sings, “I see your signs, they’re clear and bright.”

“My Father’s Chair” closes out the set with Springfield struggling to accept his father’s departure. During periods of pain, Springfield finds comfort and healing in his father’s favorite chair.

As a whole, “Orchestrating My Life” showcases Springfield’s talent for crafting and delivering songs that make us laugh, cry, dance and sing out loud like nobody’s watching.

From glidemagazine.com on Summer Of Sorcery:

Little Steven created a stir with his 2017 Soulfire release, followed by last year’s 3-CD live version.  This momentum, and this strong 14-piece band, were primed to do more and have now delivered Van Zandt’s first album of new material in 20 years with Summer of Sorcery. Like those efforts, this is written, arranged, and produced by Van Zandt at his own studio in New York City, with Grammy Award winner Geoff Sanoff co-producing aside Disciples of Soul musical director and guitarist Mark Ribler. As before, Van Zandt’s lifelong friend Bob Clearmountain and Bo Ludwig mixed and mastered, respectively.

Van Zandt says, “my first five albums in the ‘80s were both very personal, and very political. I wanted the new material to be more fictionalized. The way records were when I grew up. Before it was an artform. The concept was capturing and communicating that first rush of summer. The electricity of that feeling of unlimited possibilities. Of falling in love with the world for the first time. Obviously, there are occasional personal references, and a bit of what’s going on socially scattered throughout, but I achieved what I set ou toto. I created a collection of fictional movies scenes that feel like summer. I’m quite proud of it.”

After all, this is Jersey Shore rock n’ roll – the kind he and his employer, The Boss, have been delivering for decades now. It’s the boardwalk, the souped-up cars, innocent love, the beach, and both unbridled lust and the sense of being able to do anything. Van Zandt doesn’t just scatter all these images and emotions around, he’s focusing it on that one special summer where on completely falls in love with life, the thrill of being alive. These are richly bombastic horn arrangements, dancing grooves, and high powered performances from a band that loves taking it at full throttle. Given this is an album that thematically hearkens back to the ‘60s, you’ll hear echoes of Sly and the Family Stone (‘Communion’), as well as Sam Cooke (“Love Again,” “Soul Power Twist”), Tito Puente (“Party Mambo”), the Beach Boys (“Superfly Terraplane”), and James Brown (“Vortex,” ”Gravity”) too.

Ten of the dozen are brand new songs, with “Suddenly You,” and an outtake from, the Lilyhammerscore (Netflix’s first original series), and a re-make of “Education,” first recorded for his 1989 Revolution. Van Zandt, energized by all that took place on the Soulfire tour, sums up his current state in the opening “Communion” chorus – “Harmony, Unity, Communion.” The percussion-infused “Party Mambo” touches on politics, with the couple from two different cultures. The girl turns out to be into Santeria and plotting spiritual revenge for the abandonment of Puerto Rico. “Vortex’ has a bit of Blaxploitation just as James Brown’s “Down and Out in New York City” did on the last album. “A World of Our Own” nods to the ‘60s girl groups.

Van Zandt calls the rather tongue-in-cheek “Superfly Terraplane,” the first single, the only real rock song but don’t be misled. Every song packs tons of energy, whether he deems, it blues, soul, or Latin.  There’s a lot to be for not taking one too seriously Van Zandt’s “Soul Power Twist,” for example, is just a plain fun dance song from yesteryear. On the other hand, Little Steven is very committed to better education and honoring teachers as evidence by last years “Soulfire Teacher Solidarity Tour,” an initiative to bring music curriculum into schools across the country. In that vein, he pulled “Education” from his funk-oriented 1989 record, also as a means of revisiting that sound.

”Suddenly You,” the outtake from the series Lilyhammer, was never used on the show but he wanted it her for its South American summery vibe. “I Visit the Blues,” built loosely in the mode of Bobby Bland’s “I Pity the Fool,” is included as Van Zandt as been getting more deeply into the blues recently. He had one on the last album and he’s hosting the Blues Music Awards again this year in Memphis as he did in 2018.  The concluding title track is the culmination of capturing that perfect nostalgic summer in one song.

When you hear Summer of Sorcery you can practically feel summer coming on.