David Chastain has been waiting a long time to be the next big
\nthing in the world of guitar gods. He’s tried more musical paths
\nthan you’d expect, all trying to break through as a guitarist whose
\nname would be a household word.<\/p>\n
Now, he tries again with a three-piece rock outfit, Southern
\nGentleman. Their debut disc
\nExotic Dancer Blues<\/i> shows that this group could be something
\nspecial… but they ain’t there yet.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the positive aspects of this disc. For one
\nthing, there is no mistaking the fact that these three musicians –
\nChastain, bassist Kevin Kekes and drummer Dennis Lesh – are
\nastounding at their instruments. The trio does work hard at laying
\ndown a solid musical foundation, and they often do succeed at
\nthis.<\/p>\n
But one major mistake is made, and it is made often – namely,
\nletting Chastain sing. Simply put, he doesn’t have the pipes for
\nthis material. I’ve always been skeptical when guitar gurus I’ve
\ngrown up with have decided to step up in front of the microphone
\nand let it rip vocally. Joe Satriani didn’t initially succeed; Dave
\nUhrich did a surprisingly good job. Chastain just isn’t a singer,
\nand Southern Gentlemen would be well advised to search out a
\nfull-time lead vocalist for their next effort.<\/p>\n
Besides, without that distraction, Chastain could easily
\nconcentrate on what he does best, and that’s play guitar. On tracks
\nlike “I Feel So Blue,” “Back Door Woman” and “Ease The Pain,”
\nChastain whips out impressive guitar licks but shows a great deal
\nof restraint. We know that he could have easily sent out a guitar
\nline which would have blistered the paint in your living room.
\nInstead, Chastain went for the vibe of the song, not how many knots
\nhe could tie in the fretboard… and that’s something to
\nadmire.<\/p>\n
\nExotic Dancer Blues<\/i> also shows further holes in Southern
\nGentlemen’s sound. Again, no knock on the musicians’
\nperformances… but the overall sound is a bit sparse. Even with
\nthe addition of a simple keyboard, it could have fleshed things out
\nmore in the short moments when Chastain didn’t play, leaving only
\nbass and drums to fill the void. Keyboards – or even, dare I say, a
\nrhythm guitarist – on cuts like “Down To New Orleans” and “Give Me
\nYour Lust” would have turned these into barnburners.<\/p>\n
Finally… as much as I appreciate the nymphette on the cover,
\nit may be wise to drop the “hornier-than-thou” approach in the
\nmusic. Putting out a call for exotic dancers to send in their
\nphotos for future album covers sounds a bit… well, desperate. (If
\nthey so wish, these same dancers can send
\nme<\/i> their photos… I’m just too cheap to renew my
\nsubscription to
\nHustler<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
With a few more coats of paint here and there, Southern
\nGentlemen could well be a band to reckon with down the road, and it
\ncould finally bring Chastain to the point where he would be as
\nrecognizable as, say, Steve Vai. I’d rather look at
\nExotic Dancer Blues<\/i> as a launching pad for the band to get
\nwhere they should be. Let’s hope these guys don’t stay static;
\notherwise, they’ll soon sound as watered down as the liquor at your
\nfavorite nudie bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6416],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-36762","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-southern-gentlemen","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36762","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36762"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36762"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}