DAMON JOHNSON (Black Star Riders) – Memoirs Of An Uprising (2019)
“Memoirs Of An Uprising” is the new album from singer / songwriter / guitarist DAMON JOHNSON, released today via Double Dragon Records. After incredible runs with the bands he co-founded, BLACK STAR RIDERS and ’90s chart-toppers BROTHER CANE, Damon Johnson found himself in spring of 2018 in a surprising position.
Johnson had just completed a coast-to-coast tour with BLACK STAR RIDERS supporting JUDAS PRIEST, as well as select reunion performances with THIN LIZZY, when he realized there were two things he couldn’t stop thinking about: his family and his music.
Would 2019 finally be the year Johnson gives full focus to the music he kept hearing in his mind, composing an album, a true collection of songs that represented his personal vision, plus have the final say about his tour calendar?
The answer was a resounding yes.
The resulting album, “Memoirs Of An Uprising”, is a collection that is both fierce and diverse — a powerful springboard for the musician to start his next chapter.
Collaborating with his longtime friend and songwriter Jim “Johnny Blade” Troglen, Johnson began assembling a group of songs in divergent tempos and grooves that appealed to his musical side and then laced them with lyrical themes of friendship, love, betrayal and revenge.
This is a classic rock / hard rock album, but right from the opening, brooding “Shivering, Shivering” it is clear no one here, either Johnson or his band members, were too interested in the rules.
That, though, has nothing on the funky-heavy “Dallas Coulda Been A Beatdown”, which is genuinely menacing and violent in its imagery. “I told myself I’d never stalk him,” he spits. “Now I pass across him, and I can see the knife against his throat.”
“Down On Me” has the air of a GUNS N’ ROSES song (it brings to mind Welcome To The Jungle), while “We Got A System” is melodic as you like, but its odd timing is indicative of the “anything goes” approach that Johnson – who acts as Producer here too – took.
“Call It A Trade” is another surprise – a stomping, almost glammy affair with bit of VAN HALEN on it – but the lyrics are again a world away from BLACK STAR RIDERS, except for a seemingly in-built ability to write a catchy hook.
“Rage With Me” has a CHEAP TRICK type crunch, and if “So Brutal” has the odd bluesy flourish, then all it does really is show how good a guitarist Johnson is.
One of my favorites is “Making Peace With This Wicked Beast”, a strutting pouting rock n’ roll masterclass – but even here Johnson isn’t going to play with a solely straight bat, and subverts the formula somewhat.
The disc ends with a genuine radio friendly rocker, “Glorious”, written with Keri Kelli (like Johnson a former Alice Cooper sideman) and in its mighty chorus, Johnson sings: “we are the last of our kind, no one stands in our way” and in many ways, that is the point.
“Memoirs Of An Uprising” is an album from a musician that has something to say. Damon Johnson has a need to create, and he deserves credit for not only going it alone instead of taking the easy route – heck, you gotta leave BLACK STAR RIDERS – but also for blurring the lines the way he has here.
Indeed, while classic rock / hard, “Memoirs Of An Uprising” has its own twist. And darn good one.
Highly Recommended
01 – Shivering Shivering
02 – Dallas Coulda Been a Beatdown
03 – Down on Me
04 – We Got a System
05 – Call It a Trade
06 – Rage with Me
07 – So Brutal
08 – The World Keeps Spinning Round
09 – Making Peace with This Wicked Beast
10 – Glorious
Damon Johnson – vocals, guitar
Tony Nagy – bass guitar
Jarred Pope – drums
Tony Higbee – guitar
BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Memoirs-Uprising-Damon-Johnson/dp/B07LDPC17K
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