MICHAEL SHEPERD BAND – II (2013)
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Rock ‘N Roll is all over the world without a doubt. Hailing from Luxembourg – a country better known for its banking industry than its Classic Rock talent – comes the MICHAEL SHEPERD BAND. They have been together for more than 15 years touring central Europe, playing in Festivals and opening for Gotthard amongst others.
The band’s self titled debut was released in 2002, and now the MSB are presenting their first international album simply titled “Michael Shepherd Band II”.
Listening to the album, one easily can assume the Michael Shepherd Band could have emerged from London town or cities like Detroit and Los Angeles sometime in the eighties.
Michael Shepherd Band plays a fully-fledged Classic Rock in the vein of vintage Whitesnake, Bad Company and Journey. While their seventies influences from the likes of Free, Thin Lizzy and Lynyrd Skynyrd echoes in their sound, most of the music in “II” range from stadium and radio anthems to raunchy rockers blended with bluesy ballads.
The guys in Michael Shepherd Band have learned the lesson with wisdom, adding thier own touch to the proceedings.
Singer (and guitar player) Baba has a voice recalling Johnny Van Zant’s most melodic era, while the multi-layered Les Paul guitars all over these tracks are fueled by the characteristic valvular-powered amp sounds of the genre.
Single and opener “This Time Around” delivers classic melodies with interesting guitar arrangements and a chorus reinforced by many (mostly female) backing vocalists. Really good tune sporting a solid six-string solo as well.
Some tracks go for melodic rock bounce like “Days Of Thunder” (with a flamboyant solo) and the Journey influenced “Reach For The Sky”. Others are more heavy as the groovy “U Can Do What U Want” and “Gambler” (WhiteSnake anyone?) while “Mistery Woman” is a whisky-soaked bluesy midtempo with nice atmosphere.
“Beautiful” is indeed a beauty ballad but my preferred is the organic “Badlands”, a very good one with a slightly Southern feel.
“Michael Shepherd Band II” is a really well rounded Classic Rock CD with some traditional bluesy Hard Rock elements.
Good songs, musicianship and production from a band clearly stating that Real Rock is alive & kicking all over the world, even there in Luxembourg.
This album celebrates a time when true Rock music ruled the airwaves and a new TV channel called MTV was just about to take off. A time when ‘Rock Of Ages’ was a song and not a musical, guitar solos became the religion of a new breed of guitar heroes that changed rock music forever while vocalists such as Paul Rodgers, Steve Perry and David Coverdale were setting the bar pretty high for any future legends.
“Michael Shepherd Band II” goes for that, not as pure nostalgia exercise, just with Classic Rock in their veins.
01 – This Time Around
02 – Days Of Thunder
03 – Beautiful
04 – Reach For The Sky
05 – Mistery Woman
06 – Gambler
07 – Heartache & Booze
08 – Badlands
09 – U Can Do What U Want
10 – Long Way From Home
11 – This Time Around (Radio Edit)
Baba – Vocals, Guitars
Kuji Kujawa – Guitars
Pablo Reuter – Bass
Gilles – Keyboards, Hammond B3
Lupo – Drums, Percussion
Jil Pintsch, Raquel Barreira, Sonja Hewer, Louis Wright – Backing Vocals
Pre-Order:
itunes.apple.com/gb/album/ii/id604027394
