John Idan - The Folly

John Idan - The Folly - 2008

Kevin Wallbank from psychedeliccentral

John Idan has spent a dozen years or more being a Yardbird and been involved in their 'Birdland' album and also the 'Live At BB King's' release, has toured all over the place and helped to ensure that the good name of this most important of 60's guitar bands lives on in the 21st century. Now he has left the band to give himself the opportunity to create his own music and to display to the world his other influences and what else motivates him apart from pumping old school R'n'B.

 'The Folly' is his first solo album and shows the breadth of his musical abilities to anyone who thought he might just be a handy bass player who sang too. John recorded, played and produced the album himself and so you get to hear his very skillful guitar playing, some really tasteful and funky Hammond organ playing and he also sings more in his own natural voice rather than having to be mindful of the vocal style of The Yardbirds' late Keith Relf. So one would imagine this has been quite a liberating experience for him. When you give the album a spin, you find that you're in a very different part of John's musical muse. It's on a funky, bright and breezy groove in places and any thoughts that it might be a straight ahead rock or even a straight rythmn and blues record are soon dispelled, there are however some hints of finest west coast influences in the mix.

 'The Ballad Of Myself' is a gentle acoustic guitar led opener that builds via string parts and features haunting Hammond passages to accompany an autobiographical lyric. 'I Began to Realise' mixes funky latin grooves with west coast stylings to conjure up a joyful feelgood number, far and away from what one might expect of Mr Idan, but it's all the more better for it's ability to surprise the listener. 'More To This Than We Know' has a cool summery laid back groove, whilst ' Banging My Head On The Wall' has a happy go lucky style with a good singalong chorus to boot. 'Sunny Franziska of the Western World' features a string quartet to great effect and ' When You Were The One' has a tension and moody atmosphere that works really well and is one of the highlights of the album.

The album closes with the bluesy 'A Long Time On This Road' and displays John's tasteful blues guitar playing to great effect. So this is John Idan the solo performer, he had a career before his most blueswailing interlude and now he is at a point where he can be be his own master and go where the muse takes him. If you're looking for a musical link from his recent activities then you'll struggle to find it. What you will find is a very talented solo multi-instrumentalist from Detroit who is making his own music and making a very good job of it in the process, this is the new John Idan.......singing like a 'bird released!

John Idan play All Instruments.

NB: Esse post só foi possível graças à generosidade do parceiro Duga, Maitre do Discófilos Anônimos e Chef do Melofilia, duas casas com menus maravilhosos. Thanks Man.

01.The Ballad Of Myself
02.I Began To Realise
03.More To This Than We Know
04.We All Belong
05.That's You And Me
06.Set Out Before The Sadness Comes
07.Five More Nights
08.No Other
09.Banging My Head On The Wall
10.Sunny Franziska of the Western World
11.The Kali Yuga's Gettin' Hot
12.When You Were The One
13.A Long Time On This Road\





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