On Thanksgiving Day, what could be more appropriate to go to than a gig, from a California based band peddling the very best in southern rock? Luckily in recent years Robert Jon and the Wreck seem to have constantly been on tour here, so the chances were high.

There was an all too short set from another band who are southern in spirit despite hailing from thousands of miles away, in Derbyshire band These Wicked Rivers. I am a big fan of the hirsute quintet, who look like a gang from the old west, but this was not the best time to catch them.

With their traditional stage set, lampshades and all, rather shoved to the side, they were given a mere 25 minutes and on opener ‘Force of Nature’ the sound was shocking with neither lead vocals nor guitar cutting through. Things looked up somewhat on ‘Shine On’ with some fine soloing from Arran Day, master of the tilting the guitar skywards pose. However, in tuning up between songs, he inadvertently kept drowning out soft spoken singer John Hartwell.

Last single ‘Black Gold’ was more commercial, then ‘Testify’ featuring some harmonica playing from keyboardist Rich Wilson, a fine heavy blues. Their very short set ended with what is their signature epic, the six minute plus ‘Don’t Pray For Me’, building from slow beginnings to a brilliant solo from Arran, pulling that pose with his twelve string and a snatch of Neil Young’s ‘hey hey my my’ as a coda.

Robert Jon and the Wreck entered without fanfare and opened in rather ordinary fashion by their standards with the conventional hard rock of ‘Hold On’ and ‘Rager’, albeit the latter with the first sparkling solo from Henry James, his Afro grown to a size not seen since Neal Schon was in Santana and concentrating to the extent he was almost in a trance. Indeed, the first four songs were all taken from brand new album ‘Red Moon Rising’, with ‘Boss Man’ having a more southern feel before the looser swamp-like grooves of the title track.

After a first older song in Waiting For Your Man’ with some crisp southern fried riffery that reminded me of the likes of Doc Holliday, The Outlaws and Point Blank, their most recent single ‘Point of View’ was enlivened by a stunning solo from Henry. ‘Shine A Light on Me Brother’ was the first to really get the crowd moving and was also the first demonstration of Henry’s equal prowess on slide, especially as he jammed with guest guitarist Joe Coombes, looking like the young Glenn Frey. Complete with lengthy intro there was more slide work on ‘Don’t Let Me Go’ before a change of pace in the country rock ballad ‘Gold’ which really grew on me.

Robert is a gruff singer who says little between songs, yet his bearlike figure exudes real authority when he does. He correctly surmised that the crowd would want to partake in a massive singalong when ‘Oh Miss Carolina’ finally got to the chorus. Among the new songs, ‘Ballad of a Broken Hearted Man’ really made an impact on me. Rockier than its studio counterpart, when a piano solo from Jake Abernathie was followed by a guitar solo from Henry, I was reminded of the great playing of Skynyrd’s Billy Powell and Allen Collins respectively.

After Robert graciously gave a special Thanksgiving Day gratitude to various parties, the best was left to last with traditional set closer ‘Cold Night’. This was a trip back to the days when every southern band used to have to have a lengthy epic and indeed began with an Allman Bros-style harmony lead between Robert and Henry which they returned to every so often. The latter went on a lengthy yet always melodic solo, crossed the stage to jam with Jake’s equally seventies inspired synth sounds, and resumed going into another dimension as the song finally weighed in at over 15 minutes.

It was matched in its epic scale by the sole encore ‘Last Light On The Highway’- bookended by a slow opening and closing was some more wonderful musicianship, with a beefy riff, an orchestral style arrangement and comparisons with UFO’s ‘Lights Out’ album and ‘Love To Love’ in particular only enhanced by the way Henry took off into an extended, rapid yet ever melodic and controlled solo in Schenker-esque fashion.

Those two last songs would have gone down a storm with viewers of the Old Grey Whistle Test in the seventies and are proof that at their very best, there is no-one to match Robert Jon and the Wreck among the myriad southern influenced classic rockers treading the boards right now.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 24 November 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)