Album review: KELLY KEELING – Mind Radio

July 9th, 2015 by andynathan

Frontiers Records [Release Date 03.07.15]

After his shambolic display spoiled Baton Rouge’s long awaited Firefest appearance a couple of years back, I did wonder whether we would hear again from Kelly Keeling, but the respected singer whose husky, bluesy tones have graced a range of projects over the years is back with his first solo album in over a decade.

This is a strange one, pairing him with Frontiers’ all-Italian in-house musicians, led by keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio and guitarist Mario Percudani. The music is typically melodic with clean guitar solos and keyboards to the fore, and occasionally they go off mid-song into almost a Kansas or Seventh Key direction with some quite progressive sounds. However despite trying his best, Kelly’s sandpaper vocal style is completely unsuited to the musical backing, which lacks a bottom end and is spoiled by a singularly feeble drum sound.

It comes over as a very contrived and inauthentic studio project. Recording vocals and music on different continents is not unusual these days in such a scenario but on this occasion it is almost as if the two have been wrongly matched together. Only on ‘Sunshine Over Me’ and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, both with a Joe Lynn Turner feel, does the combination really gel.

Yet among these disappointments are three excellent songs in ‘Written In Fire’, ‘Monkey House’ and ‘Who Do You Run To’. Co-written with Baton Rouge colleagues Jack Ponti and Lance Bulen, they sound like prime time Baton Rouge, very possibly being unreleased songs lying in the vaults and sonically very different from the rest of the album.

As with Ponti’s trademark work the production is meatier, the choruses more convincing and the big, rhythmic sound better suited to his voice. But it is a moot point whether they rescue the album or merely highlight that the rest of it does not work. **3/4

Review by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

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 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)