Artist: Blackwood Creek
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2009
Length: 43:38
Rating: 3.5/5
The name Kip Winger, or just Winger, hardly needs an introduction. Winger, the notorious rockers who kicked up quite a storm when they hit the scene at the tail end of hair rock’s golden years. And it’s right in this period that Kip Winger, as a musical artist, is going through a real artistic bloom. The excellent solo album “From The Moon To The Sun” (2008) – RockLine review HERE, adorned with the intense, personally confessional edge of art rock that a layman would never expect from a sworn hard rocker, was followed by one of the highlights of 2009. The new Winger album “Karma” (RockLine review HERE), with which Winger defined a new Winger sound for new times.
Blackwood Creek is a thing that happened before Winger. In the early eighties. Its roots actually go back to the childhood of brothers Kip and Nate Winger. Add the name of guitarist Peter Fletcher, who is far from a mere extra on the album, and you get a trio that isn’t plucking strings weighed down by whiny, country-flavored nostalgia, but one that takes the track more directly, more down to earth, in line with the roots of hard rock tradition. Hard rock with no extra frills of studio cosmetics, freed from programmed patterns, sub-rhythms and Beach’s sharpened, spiky solos, with keyboards serving only to occasionally round out the sound of the guitar riffs.
Honestly, if you look at the color of Kip Winger’s voice alone, there’s nothing to worry about on that front, because it’s (potentially) the main carrier of shifting moods. And Blackwood Creek lean heavily on this element of Kip’s this time and make the most of it. The expressive power of Kip Winger’s voice was also confidently demonstrated by his solo acoustic tour of Europe two years ago. Kip is at home in the mid-range. He has a pleasant, harmonious, warm, velvety voice with a mild touch of huskiness, which doesn’t give off that forced Jon Bon Jovi vibe but comes out of the throat far more naturally.
So, here’s the deal. Strong support from the solid rhythmic framework of Nate Winger’s drums, with the guitar riffs raw and alive while keeping a watchful eye on preserving the melodic feel of the overall sound. Any escapes into modern “dissonance” or gritty, smeared-out murk would of course lead to an unwanted whiff of alternative rock. So: a classic hard rock sound, no ironing out the wrinkles. The solos slot into this, often accompanying the outros of the songs, especially in the chorus repeats, where the atmosphere has to be built up and the building blocks of the music kept as lively as possible.
Despite the rigidity of the trio format of vocals/bass plus drums plus guitar, it manages to deliver a record with enough variety. So we move from the sped-up rock sprints in Rack Of Greed or the opener Out in Outher Space. The mid-tempo moments, whose chunky, razor-sharp rock riffing is especially good for the Blackwood Creek atmosphere, work great in the song Love Inspector, where the song’s wicked character gets fuel on the fire from Kip Winger’s pointedly raspy vocal approach. Joy Rider and Nothing But The Sun don’t escape this either. At these points the band slyly breaks up the one-dimensional vocal with a melodic, singable chorus, built from excellent multi-part vocal harmonies. That, of course, is something Kip brought over from Winger. Then there are the more intimate moments, where it’s especially the subtle power of Kip’s vocals that creeps under your skin. Naturally in the calmer parts of the album, like Albatross (one of the most strongly defined songs in the tightness of the verse-chorus relationship and in reaching the album’s intense feelings), or the ballad After Your Heart in the middle of the album and the closing Wooden Shoe. In the latter two the band fills out the sound further with organ. The end of the album thus carries a touch of solemnity, which overpowers the melancholic murmur of the vocal harmonies as well as the subtle side of Kip Winger’s vocals.
The album radiates positivity, ease, a carefree spirit; it feels natural, it feels genuine. And what matters most: it’s packed to the brim with just the right dose, walking the middle line between rock sharpness and effective melody. Despite the cover and the album title, from which you get the first impression that this will be a rock album soaked in shallow country reach, supposed to give off a note of nostalgia for the Winger brothers’ unlived shared childhood, that fear of a full-on pathetic outburst turns out to be completely unnecessary. Once again Kip Winger has everything under absolute control with both pals, on just the right rock springs. A new excellent album that all fans of Winger, as well as of Kip Winger’s solo work, will reach for.
Lineup
Kip Winger – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards
Peter Fletcher – guitar, backing vocals
Nate Winger – drums, backing vocals
Production
Kip Winger
Track list
1. Out In Outer Space
2. Nothing But The Sun
3. Your Revolution
4. Dead Stung
5. After Your Heart
6. Albatross
7. Jimmy And Georgia
8. Rack Of Greed
9. Love Inspector
10. Joy Ride
11. Wooden Shoe
