A SHUTUP&JAM! RECORD REVIEW BY A LIFETIME MUSIC/GUITAR AFICIONADO JAMMER. Shut Up & Jam is an apropos name for your album! Sure, Ill admit there has been a few times over the years where Ive thought Damn Ted...shut the hell up and just play that damn guitar! However, be it a concert goer or someone listening to any of your albums --- people have to realize that if you did simply shut up your guitars voice would also be affected. Your guitar is an extension of you and whats best for everyone is that neither shuts up. After a few years of hearing nuggets of tracks from Shut Up & Jam its exciting to finally hear the finished versions. I know that many of these have been just waiting to burst forth ever since 2007s Love Grenade. Its been five years since we jammed out parts of Never Stop Believing at a hunt camp in northern Ontario! Ive always thought that, no matter how good the lyrics, its your guitar phrases and licks that grab me. I find that often Im humming the guitar patterns as opposed to the lyrics. I hope that guitarists take a close and long listen to each song on Shut Up & Jam. Your unique ability to keep the root note anchoring the bottom end while licks explode forth seems to be a skill only a select few have ever completely mastered. Fear Itself is a perfect example. The root note keeps ticking away while the guitar phrasing matches the lyric patterns. Everything Matters takes us all back nearly forty years! It has a funky, bebop-like groove that could have easily been a track on the very first Ted Nugent album in 1975. Dereks voice suits the song perfectly. This song _must_ find a way into the setlist. If people in the audience arent dancing to this song something is wrong! Never Stop Believing is simply a phenomenal song. Its another Fred Bear. I very clearly remember us jamming out this song while it was still in its infancy! I instantly knew it would be a great song but never expected this! Uplifting lyrics combined with that open G note that rings throughout the chorus make this the standout song of the entire album. This is another song that has to immediately be added to the tours setlist. One track Im always looking forward to on each of your albums is the instrumental. Throttledown grabs you right from the start. This is a track that all guitarists should listen to and learn from. Youre playing through Peavy 6505+ amps, with their settings all at max, and using a Gibson Byrdland. How come that big hollow body jazz guitar that we each love isnt feeding back uncontrollably? How are the notes so clear? Thats what guitarists have to figure out! Your ability to slur each note while still allowing it to clearly and distinctly be heard is a guitar lesson on its own! Do-Rags and A .45 and Screaming Eagles are two songs that show both your guitar prowess and your singing ability. Youre not just jamming out a simple three-chord blues pattern at double speed but instead playing fast, complex licks and chord patterns up and down the neck while keeping the vocals for yourself as opposed to handing them off to Derek. The Nuge ring finger greasy slide technique can be heard all over the chorus --- another playing technique that every guitarist should learn and have at his disposal. Kudos for creating an album that easily takes me back to the days of the 1970s Nuge! Youve gotta Shut Up & Jam and we all need to shut up and listen to it. Todd C. Ontario
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 05:34:23 +0000
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