AARON KEYLOCK – Cut Against The Grain (2017)

Born in Oxford, UK, teenage guitar sensation AARON KEYLOCK picked up the guitar aged 8. While most kids were playing with toys and concentrating on threading conversations together he was already stringing his Les Paul and developing an understanding of songwriting, guitar licks and by the age of 11 he was rocking the clubs. And his tender 18 he become a band leader, who writes his own material and has enough experience to pour the ups and down of life on the road into his songs.
Above all, “Cut Against The Grain” – his proper full length debut CD – is the triumph of focused perseverance over settling for something more mundane.

Aaron also found the perfect foil for his effervescent playing in producer Fabrizio Grossi (Alice Cooper, Slash, Zakk Wylde) whose mellifluous production highlights the album’s intricacies in a refreshing take on rockin’ blues, with influences ranging from Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin to Steve Marriott or Robert Johnson.
Sure there’s plenty of retro influences but his licks are intense and his lyrics engaging and consistent enough to draw us in into the album’s twists and turns, with a subliminal pull that always leads to the next track.

The disc opens with the straight to-the-vein ‘All The Right Moves’, full of intense playing and a booming chorus that matches his vibrant approach. He’s not lacking in self confidence either, as evidenced by the brave time-changes of ‘Down’, which punctuate his sizzling guitar licks, while he adds more nifty slide and harp on ‘Medicine Man’ which opens with a distant down-home feel before exploding into a midtempo rocker with a chanted refrain.
Aaron is equally good when playing slow – always a good barometer of a guitarist’s true ability and touch and tone – as he positively revels with a big tone and expressive phrasing on ‘Falling Again’, a track that suggests he’s been working hard on his vocals.

Unlike so many of his contemporaries, it’s not number of notes that count, but rather the ability to make a concise musical statement over 11 tracks that sound linked and interwoven by the flow of his playing.
Aaron makes every solo count in terms of dynamics and emotional expression. One minute he gets down low on ‘Just One Question’, to build up the solo with real heft and then there’s a sudden slide break from the left hand speaker that cuts through the heart of ‘Medicine Man’ like a bolt of lightning.

“Cut Against The Grain” is an album full of spark, real energy and strong material that suggests Aaron Keylock has quickly found his own musical identity.
It has real crossover appeal, from classic rock / hard / power blues to the subtleties of rootsy acoustic rock. Aaron lets his guitar playing evoke the meaning and feel of his songs to such an extent that the eleven tracks feel part of organic whole.
Fabrizio Grossi’s contemporary production values subtly gel everything together, highlighting Aaron’s voice with a crisp clarity while making sure the solos flow and imbue even the most familiar riffs with an essential vitality.
Strongly Recommended

01 – All The Right Moves
02 – Down
03 – Medicine Man
04 – Falling Again
05 – Just One Question
06 – Against The Grain
07 – That’s Not Me
08 – Try
09 – Spin The Bottle
10 – Sun’s Gonna Shine
11 – No Matter What The Cost

Aaron Keylock – Vocals, Guitars
Jordan Maycock – Bass
Sonny Miller Greaves – Drums

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