Ah, Wolfstone. Where is thy sting?<\/p>\n
Seriously, though, the latest CD from Scottish Celt-rock band
\nWolfstone is nice, well-played, musical, and utterly without the
\nsting and power I’ve grown to expect from the boys with the
\nbagpipes. It’s as if Metallica suddenly did an album with a
\nsymphon\u2026wait. Rethink that metaphor for a moment. It’s as if
\nthe Indigo Girls suddenly did an album of Andrews Sisters covers.
\nI’m sure they’d do it well, but\u2026isn’t something lost in the
\ntranslation?<\/p>\n
What’s missing is the bagpipes. There’s almost none on this CD,
\nand without it Wolfstone is just another Celtic band, Altan with a
\ntartan. The oomph is gone, and we can only hope they get it back,
\nbecause
\nSeven<\/i> has a worse case of bland than
\nThis Strange Place<\/i>.<\/p>\n
What instrumentation there is is without peer. Duncan Chisholm’s
\nfiddle is flawless, from the traditional playing on “Maggie’s” and
\n“Psycho Woman” to the experimentation on “Quinie Fay
\nRyhnie.””Fingal’s Cave” gets a trance overdub, and “J-Time” is
\nCeltic funk (and
\nthere’s<\/i> two words you don’t hear together very often). Andy
\nSimmers’ piano on “John Simmers” and “Brave Boys” is excellent as
\nwell.<\/p>\n
But there’s no punch, and it’s easy to hear why. The first is
\nthe missing bagpipes; believe it or not, you can rock out on
\nbagpipes, and that’s part of what has made Wolfstone’s past sound
\nso effective. The second is the vocals of Stuart Eaglesham, which
\nare as ephemeral as a George W. Bush campaign position compared to
\npast vocalists Struan Eaglesham and Ian Drever. Wolfstone’s rock
\nend has suffered, and while as Celtic musicians they’re more than
\ncompetent, so are a hundred other bands. There’s nothing to make
\nthem stand out any more.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the weaker tracks are vocal;
\n“Crowfeathers,””Wild And The Free” and “Black Dog” (no, this is NOT
\na Led Zeppelin cover, though that’d be surreal as heck) are all
\nforgettable.<\/p>\n
Wolfstone needs direction, and to return to their roots as a
\nband who plays rock and roll with a Scottish soul. What they’re
\ndoing now isn’t particularly special or distinctive, and that’s a
\nshame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6126],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36506","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-wolfstone","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36506"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36506"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}