Blues Matters – National Blues Magazine – Website Review 4 of Gods & Highways & Old Guitars – August 2013
ROADHOUSE
GODS & HIGHWAYS & OLD GUITARS
Krossborder-ReKords
Roadhouse refuse to change lanes in their latest excellent release. Gary Boner’s vision of a solid and uncompromising Blues-Rock band remains uncompromised and wonderfully intact. The rhythms are incessant, the lyrical themes are familiar – dark and all-pervading sheer bloody mindedness abound. From the first backing chant of Hell On Wheels through the Wishbone Ash-like twin guitar solo of I Can’t Say No the pace is unrelenting. What is new and refreshing is the increased prominence given to the female singers Mandie G, Sarah Harvey-Smart and Suzie D, not just as excellent support to Boner’s gruff and menacing voice, but as soloists, for example in the superb title track. Katrina is appropriately sombre and The Big Easy has the groove of Alannah Myles’ Black Velvet but that song’s moody reflection is replaced by sexual tension and superb guitar soloing. The album weighs in at 10 tracks and 55 minutes, and each tune is allowed to expand and breathe. It is Roadhouse’s use of repetition that increases the unsettling and subliminal effect, for example in Slow Down. The standout cut is the call-and-response Spirits Across The Water, a powerful and magnificent song. The riff in Blues Motel puts Black Sabbath to shame. The suitably confessional yet rebellious Sinner closes what is Roadhouse’s most complete and finest offering yet. And oh yes the black and white artwork with the splash of colour is great to
Noggin