JAMES YOUNG with JAN HAMMER – City Slicker (1984-1985) [CD version]
As requested, let’s hear now ”City Slicker”, the collaborative effort from Styx lead guitarist JAMES YOUNG and composer Jan Hammer (Miami Vice, Neal Schon). This is ‘JY’ debut solo album, however marketed as a Young/Hammer effort, released in 1984, 1985 or 1986 depending the country, and reissued on this not so easy to find CD in 1993.
There is a confident swagger to this album that many other ‘big band member going solo’ albums, with a rocking approach thanks to JY guitar work but not being the main focus only, with Hammer providing an arsenal of keys / synths for a wonderfully textured LP.
We find commercial, mid-80s slick sounding catchy tracks mixed with more elaborated compositions. For Styx, Young only provided one song per record, and in most cases that cut was a keeper (“Miss America,” “Snowblind”), and here he finds room for his pen, and proves he can sing very well too.
Following Styx’s former cohorts Tommy Shaw and Dennis DeYoung solo albums, it was time for JY own debut, and for his first LP he wisely gets help from moral booster Jan Hammer, whose consummate keyboard skills guided guitar-first giants like Tommy Bolin, Jeff Beck, and Neal Schon.
The resulting collaboration contains some really cool moments, such as radio track “Give Me Something to Remember You By” and quasi-classic Bolin reference “Wild Dogs in the Night.”
”City Slicker” might have made waves if properly promoted, but the album promptly disappeared, along with Young, who resurfaced in Styx and recorded another solo work, ”Out On A Day Pass”. Young also teamed with admirers Enuff Z’Nuff in the ’90s for the ‘Raised By Wolves’ CD.
Highly Recommended
01 – City Slicker
02 – Something To Remember You By
03 – Waiting
04 – Still Feel Your Love
05 – Runnin’ Out Of Time
06 – Chain Me Down
07 – No Mistake
08 – Prisoner Of War
09 – Wild Dogs In The Night
10 – Empty Promises
Lead Vocals, Guitar, Backing Vocals – J.Y.
Keyboards, Drums, Drum Machine – Jan Hammer
Bass – Colin Hodgkinson, Rick Young (track 5)
Cowbell – Steven A. Jones
out of print
