Though he might be better known as the bassist for the Randy Rogers Band, Austin’s Johnny \u201cChops\u201d Richardson is a hell of a songwriter in his own right, which he proved on his 2013 debut album Sticks & Stones<\/i>. On this sophomore album, Chops assembled an all-star cast of musicians, The Razors, whose credentials include playing alongside John Fogerty, Miranda Lambert and Reckless Kelly.<\/p>\n
The first single, \u201cBeliever,\u201d starts the album off with a dusty, thick Americana tune where Chops\u2019 husky vocals are complemented by fuzzed-out guitars, strategically placed keys and minimal percussion. \u201cMedicine\u201d follows and is a more anthemic affair with a giant chorus and louder approach, and Brandy Zdan is recruited on \u201cI Just Want To Make Love To You\u201d (originally by Willie Dixon) for a gritty country-rock duet where subtle blues comes in. <\/p>\n
By the fourth, \u201cTombstone Flowers,\u201d we begin to see the diversity Chops manifests with rockabilly influences and an oldies feeling, and \u201cWhen It Comes To You\u201d brings a piano-heavy ballad. \u201cTen Cent Talkers\u201d then ramps the pace up to breezy, garage-rock influenced Americana. <\/p>\n
The remaining few tracks don\u2019t detract too much from the rest of the pack. \u201cTaking A Chance On Me\u201d brings in The Gospel Starz to help flesh out the soulful rocker, and \u201cGimme Sugar\u201d is a little more rustic than sweet, but packs a memorable punch. The album highlight, \u201cRock Bottom,\u201d resides near the end and is a roaring piano rocker with soft backing vocals. \u201cGood Night\u201d closes the listen as Chops channels a Johnny Cash-like solemnity.<\/p>\n
Chops cites influences like Tom Petty, Muddy Waters and Social Distortion, though I also hear the rugged Americana of early Wilco in these well-crafted gems. Chops has been at it for a couple of decades now, having been born into a musical family, and it shows in these songs you won\u2019t soon forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10195],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45334","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-chops-and-the-razors","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45334","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\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45334"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}