Best of What’s New

Last week I introduced Best of What’s New, which I intend to make a recurring feature highlighting new music that caught my attention. I’m trying to keep these posts a bit eclectic and at least occasionally venture beyond my core wheelhouse. This second installment includes blues, southern rock, metal rap and alternative pop.

Sass Jordan/One Way Out

From the website of “Canada’s Queen of Rock”, Sass Jordan: Montreal’s burgeoning ’70’s scene included a ‘no holds barred’ approach to glam, punk, blues, prog, metal, country, jazz, folk, with the added attraction of a homegrown sound created by the Quebecois artists of the decade, unique to the landscape and pertinent to the denizens of the period… This was the backdrop that nurtured one of the pioneers of female fronted rock – Sass Jordan…Sass has found herself working with and in the company of many of the people that inspired her to do what she does, amongst them the incomparable Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Steve Miller Band, Van Halen, The Foo Fighters, Cheap Trick, Santana, Joe Cocker, Styx, Rodger Hodgson, April Wine, Jeff Healy, and countless others. She has won various awards, including Juno and Billboard, and has sold over a million records world wide. Two weeks ago on March 13, Jordan released her first blues album Rebel Moon Blues, which is her ninth overall. Here’s the tasty opener and lead single Leaving Trunk, which like most of the tracks on the album is a cover, in this case of a Sleepy John Estes tune. With her raspy voice, I think Jordan is born to sing the blues!

The Outlaws/Southern Rock Will Never Die

With an Allman Brothers Band-like harmony rock guitar intro, it took less than five seconds for me to realize I dig the above tune by The Outlaws, a southern rock band that’s been around for more than 40 years. From their website: Formed in Tampa in 1972, The Outlaws – known for their triple-guitar rock attack and three-part country harmonies – became one of the first acts signed by Clive Davis (at the urging of Ronnie Van Zant) to his then-fledgling Arista Records. The band’s first three albums The Outlaws, Lady In Waiting and Hurry Sundown…would become worldwide gold and platinum landmarks of the Southern Rock era…The Outlaws earned a formidable reputation as an incendiary live act touring with friends The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band and The Charlie Daniels Band as well as The Doobie Brothers, The Who, Eagles and The Rolling Stones. After their first three albums, The Outlaws have seen numerous lineup changes and some downtime. The anthem-like Southern Rock Will Never Die is the opener to Dixie Highway, their 13th studio album that came out on February 28. Sounds like I should also listen to their first three records.

Zombie Drive-In/The Man From Corpus Christi

Not much information out there on Zombie Drive-In. According to their Facebook page, the band includes Owen Davis (drums, vocals), Austin Sizemore (guitar, vocals), Timothy Schmidt (guitar, vocals) and Josh Holden (bass, vocals). They have been around since 2011 and characterize their music as ’70s metal rap rock. I will say this definitely falls outside my core wheelhouse, but there’s just something about it. What initially attracted me to the song was the harmony guitar intro. My streaming music provider lists albums from 2013 and 2014 and The Man From Corpus Christi, a single the band put out on March 4.

Dez Money/Hold On

Dez Money (born Demond Lennon Mahoney) is the son of rock vocalist and songwriter Eddie Money, who sadly passed away in September 2019 at the age of 70 due to complications from esophageal cancer. According to his website, Dez writes all of his own music and serves as a producer as well. Aside from writing and singing the songs Dez plays the piano, guitar, bass, and drums as well in his music. His first album titled “Take Me Down” debuted in 2015. Dez also co-starred in a reality show about his family, Real Money, and opened up and played in the band of his father. Hold On is from Dez’s sophomore album Blue, which appeared on February 14.

Sources: Wikipedia; Sass Jordan website; American Blues Scene; The Outlaws website; Dez Money website; YouTube