Schooled on the boardwalk of Venice Beach, Slavin David has been part of local California lore for three decades.
Learning his craft through endless performances for thousands of visitors to the Venice promenade, David Breitman has also performed with outfits such as the Venice Can Aligators, Billy Preston, Tommy Mars, and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys.
Rock And Roll Road is Slavin' David's follow-up to 2008's It's About Friggin' Time. The new album is credited to Slavin' David And Loose Gravel, and features new guitarist Larry Rosen, who has quite a bit of musical history of his own. Readers of Stephen T. McCarthy's Stuffs may remember his posts about him-if not go read 'em HERE and HERE.
In addition to playing guitar, Larry wrote four of the songs on the disc, helping to contribute to a solid follow-up effort from Slavin' David.
The first song on the new album, "Late Night Drinking Blues," starts with a guitar riff that would not seem out of place on the follow-up to Skynyrd's Street Survivors. Slavin' David get their southern rock mojo working early on .
The songs that follow display quite a few different styles, from blues rock to funky blues to the straight-ahead rock of the title track. The diversity keeps the album fresh.
Breitman's voice suits the material, and the two guitarists complement each other well. The rest of the band is tight, and the album is sequenced well.
Katie Ray Coleman's vocals provide a nice change of pace on "Magic's All Gone."
Overall this is a very solid effort, good party music that in a just world would get lots of radio airplay.
Since we live in an unjust world of satellite radio with 24 hour a day Lady Gaga stations, your best bet is to score a copy at the band's site.
Don't forget to enter my contest to win a free CD-all you have to do is leave a comment on one of my posts to enter, and Slavin David's first CD is one of the titles up for grabs! Somebody's gonna win-it might as well be you!
What I wouldn't give to time warp back to the 60s on the boardwalk at Venice Beach!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a Southern Rock vibe.
ReplyDeleteVenice Beach boardwalk is one of the places I take people who come to visit who have not been there before. Venice is fun to visit, but I don't think I'd want to live there. It's cheesy, sleazy, and plain weird--like a carnival with a healthy dose of side shows and freako attractions.
Lee
Tossing It Out
This was an excellent review. I had given a little thought to what I will say about this album on my next STUFFS installment, but you said it better.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe I'll just link my blog bit to this one... if you don't mind.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
STMcC-
ReplyDeleteI don't mind at all-you ususally do a better job of "song-by-song" than I do anyway, plus have the personal connection.
Lee-
While I have done several business trips to LA, I'm still basically only qualified to opine as a tourist.
I think I know what you mean, though.
Philly has a street called South Street where "all the hippies meet" to quote an old song. A lot of fun on a Friday night but I wouldn't want to live there.
Venice does have a beach, though.
And cute girls in bikinis on rollerblades.
My neighborhood has neither of those.
LC