By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

SALTY DOG – EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY (1990)

I’m not sure if using a well-worn cliche as your debut album’s title was a bit too much in the way of tempting fate, but in the case of Salty Dog it just might’ve been the harbinger of bad things to come.
Powered by a blues driven rock sound that was apparently compared to Led Zeppelin but owed just as much to the actual blues music, Salty Dog ended up being a one album wonder. This was in spite of the fact that they actually had a pretty damn good sound to their music.

While researching a bit about the album, I learned that the band pretty much went down the drain soon after the album was released. Singer Jimmi Bleacher left the band and, despite a try at going forward with a new singer, the band pretty much dissolved from that point.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Every Dog Has Its Day isn’t a showcase for what was and might’ve been with the band. Or for those with a darker viewpoint on life, a fitting epitaph instead.

The album kicks off with “Come Along,” the first of the two songs to be featured upon the original release with music videos. The thing that struck me was that despite this track being the best known of the band’s songs, I found it a bit wanting. Yes, there was a hook that draws you in at first but I thought there was something missing that left the song just this side of completely satisfying.

Musically, the entire album is pretty strong. I thought the various aspects of the guitar playing from Pete Reveen was both lively and energetic. There’s a variety of styles employed within the confines of straight up hard rock. The cheeky vibe of “Just Like A Woman” finds the band loosening up a little while the one pure ballad track “Sacrifice Me” has a much deeper emotional feel to it.

Of the 13 tracks, there are 12 originals plus a cover of the Willie Dixon song “Spoonful.”

What really got me hooked on certain songs was when the band was firing up the rock tempo on “Cat’s Got Nine” and “Ring My Bell.” On these types of songs, singer Jimmi Bleacher really sounds good.

However, there was one particular part of the album where I just found myself a bit irritated. Bleacher’s voice has a screechy/whiny aspect at times. For most of the album it is kept in check, but on songs like “Where The Sun Don’t Shine,” that Willie Dixon cover and “Heave Hard (She Comes Easy),” that whiny tone is unrestrained and quite frankly ruins the songs.

The second of the songs that got videos was “Lonesome Fool” and it employs a banjo threaded throughout the musical soundtrack. Right up until the end, the song is actually quite good. But there’s a spoken word ending verse to the song that takes it from good to downright ridiculous.

That said though, songs like the rocker “Keep Me Down” and the gonzo paced closing song “Nothin’ But A Dream” help give more heft to the album as a whole.

While circumstances conspired against Salty Dog having any kind of sustained success, this album does stand up to the idea that they had some serious talent in the band. While it does have some peaks and valleys in terms of song quality, Every Dog Has Its Day finds itself as Exhibit A in demonstrating what might’ve been for this band had they been able to hold things together.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The album’s producer was Peter Collins who also worked with Rush, Queensryche and Gary Moore.

Every Dog Has Its Day has been reissued twice on CD. The first time was in 2010 via Bad Reputation Records and then in 2016 by Rock Candy Records. The reissues came with four demos as bonus tracks.

For those that might be wondering what the band’s secnd album would’ve sounded like, you’ll able to fulfill that desire starting with the day this article goes live. On March 23, 2018, Escape Music will release Lost Treasure, which contains 11 tracks that were recorded years ago. The songs feature singer Darrel Beach who was recruited to the band after Jimmi Bleacher left the group.

BY JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

SWEET F.A. – STICK TO YOUR GUNS (1990)

The band Sweet F.A. is one who’s name I remember from the 80’s metal era, but I would’ve been hard pressed to guarantee that I’d ever actually heard any of their music.

I know that I never owned either of the band’s two albums before starting this series. This article concerns their debut release and when I first played it, I ended up feeling that the opening track, “Prince of the City,” was vaguely familiar. The song was an energetic rocker with a big amped up chorus so it was definitely a song that would’ve caught my ear back then. I still can’t say for sure but chances are that I knew the song.

While I enjoyed “Nothin’ For Nothin’,” the song that came next on the tape, I can’t say that the rest of side one was all that appealing. “Rhythm of Action” was hampered by a deliberately plodding pace that left one feeling rather pale, cold and dead inside.

As for the rest of the songs, two start out slow and progress into more of a rocking track while “Daily Grind” is a fiery rocker from the start. The problem is that none of them really felt like more than filler to me.

Of course, when you get to the second side of the album, things change up a bit. The lead track is “Whiskey River” which is a balls out rocker and a killer tune. Singer Steven David DeLong (as well as the rest of the band) had the glam/sleaze rock look but his voice had a raspy and rough edge to it that gave the better tracks on the album a little extra kick to them.

While the title “I Love Women” isn’t exactly in the vicinity of original, the actual song isn’t bad. And there’s a slickly cool vibe to the rocker “Breakin’ The Law” (which is NOT a cover of the Judas Priest classic).
Admittedly, the power ballad “Heart of Gold” and the closing track “Southern Comfort” left something to be desired, but you also had a stunningly intriguing track like “Devil’s Road.”

The material’s quality may ebb and flow a bit but I found myself rather surprised to be enjoying a lot of what Sweet F.A. had to offer on Stick To Your Guns. I don’t really see a need for them to jump on the get back together after three decades apart bandwagon, but for its time and place, they and this album were entertaining.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The band released one more album, 1991’s Temptation, before they called it a day.

The sides of the album are listed as Side F and Side A. When I first took the cassette out, I thought I had to rewind the darn thing. Also, the title track is the only song whose lyrics are included in the liner notes.

The album’s producer, Howard Benson, played the keyboards for the release.

By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

HURRICANE – SLAVE TO THE THRILL (1990)

For those not paying close attention, this is the third Hurricane studio album that has been featured in this series. I really enjoyed Take What You Want and had serious reservations about their most successful album Over The Edge. By the time Slave To The Thrill was released, I had consigned the band to the recycle bin of my personal musical interests. It would figure of course that, having now listened to the album, I did so one album too early.

Guitarist Robert Sarzo had left the band (though he did receive one co-writing credit on the rather mediocre sounding “10,000 Years”) and been replaced by Doug Aldrich. I don’t know if it was the addition of Aldrich but the music on this album is decidedly heavier without sacrificing much in the way of melody.

Of the 12 songs on the album (11 tracks are listed but track 8 is actually an uncredited instrumental called “FX” which is a mere trifle of a thing), the band wrote four songs on their own and co-wrote six more with outside writers. The remaining two songs were done entirely by outside writers. I mention this because other than a couple of misfires, this album is such a cohesive whole that you would never think there were so many irons in the songwriting fire.

The first side of the album is rocking out from the start. The song “Reign of Love” goes full out from the first notes and stays that way throughout the song. In fact, the first four tracks are all fast paced tracks that excel at getting your motor revved up. “Dance Little Sister” has a nice little rhythmic groove to it. The only negative was the ballad “Don’t Wanna Dream.” I know every track can’t be a home run, but this was another in a long line pedestrian at best ballads from the era.

Side two had much the same kind of makeup as Side one. I mentioned the disappointing “10,000 Years” earlier in this article, but other than that the songs were all rather good. “Temptation” is an explosive track while “Let It Slide” made me think of a song you’d hear in some kind of Western movie.

The band really had something going on with this slightly altered, heavier edge to their music. Doug Aldrich kills it throughout the album and for my money, singer Kelly Hansen’s vocals have a welcome more aggressive and somehow deeper feel to them.

I know that it isn’t usually a welcome thing to find out that you have misjudged or dismissed something before you should have. However, I don’t mind admitting I was wrong when it comes to something musical. I was right in my relative disdain for Hurricane’s Over The Edge, but I should definitely have stuck around for this follow up. Slave To The Thrill live up to its title billing by providing one musical thrill after another.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The original release of the album contained the album cover with a naked woman sprawled on a machine. It must’ve caused at least some bit of controversy because later pressings of the album had the nude woman removed. The version I have includes the woman.

Frank Simes co-wrote “Reign of Love” and “Young Man,” two of the album’s stand out tracks. He’s perhaps best known having toured as the musical director for The Who, solo Roger Daltrey, Stevie Nicks and Don Henley.