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It’s 1969 in America, and guitar rock is
king. Power trios play a mixture of blues and
psychedelic music in long, free-flowing jams.
Except that it is 2002, and W.I.N.D. is
Italian. But it sounds just as good.
Jam bands in America have pretty much
splintered off into categories, many of them jazz,
but W.I.N.D. still has an eclectic sound. Along with
blues staples like “Spoonful” and “Hoochie
Coochie Man”, there are slide guitar rockers like
“Going Lazy”, rock ballads like “Can You Feel
Me?”, and spacey jams like the over eight minute
“Dance With the Devil”.
There is no way to tell from the CD that
Fabio Drusin (how’s that for a rock star name?) is
Italian. Not only is his English perfect, but he has
the inflections down pat. He is also a decent
bassist, with a bit of a Jack Bruce feel.
Jimi Barbiani particularly stands out on
jam-based works like the title track. It is hard for
anyone to come up with anything new on rock guitar,
but Barbiani expertly plays in a number of different
styles, often reminding listeners of Robin Trower or
the American Jimi. On other songs, he has an
excellent feel for blues.
Keyboard player Johnny Neel, who has played
with Gov’t Mule and the Allman Brothers, is
present on about half of the cuts. He adds variety
to the sound, even if he does not contribute any new
ideas to the mix.
There is a bonus CD included, also. It only
has four tunes, but all are well done, particularly
an instrumental version of “Spoonful.”
This band brings out the best in our
country’s jam rock history. We can only hope that
W.I.N.D. breaks in America-er, you know what I mean.
Web
Site: http://www.wind-band.net
- Dave Howell
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