Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Blackbird Diaries - Dave Stewart CD Review

Dave Stewart

The Blackbird Diaries

Proper Records - out now

I wish Dave would make more albums! He is such a brilliant musician and a Dave Stewart release is something of a rarity mainly due to the fact the man is so in demand for his producing, writing and film scoring talents amongst many other things.


The standout tracks on this disc are many and I found a vocal resemblance to a certain Mr Petty on more than one song here. Overall the feel of this record is very relaxed and strongly reflects Dave's love of Country Music with a bit of Rock and Blues thrown in for good measure. The opening slide of So Along Ago is gorgeous and the sound of this record is huge and is immensely satisfying.

This is an excellent production job from (not unexpectedly) from Mr Stewart himself but also Mike Bradford, with the mixing and recording handled by John McBride at Blackbird Studios. There are some fabulous guests featured too. Martina McBride, Stevie Nicks and Colby Calliat all shine. McBride's duet All Messed Up is particularly poignant and worthy of lots of airplay.

Other musical partners on the recording are guitarist Tom Bukovac, drummer Chad Cromwell, bassist Michael Rhodes, steel guitarist Dan Dugmore with Mike Rojas on piano. If you like beautiful songs and top notch playing, listen to this record. It's sumptuous.

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