Blackwood Creek
BLACKWOOD CREEK
Frontiers Records

OK, load up the MP3 player with yet another band that this Pitriff guy sent me.  Geeze, how many new bands can there be?   Hmmm, this sounds familiar.  After listening to it one time through, not bad, but I KNOW I have heard this before.  After a bleary eyed search of the internet,  I know why it sounds familiar.  The lead singer is Kip Winger.  I just got done with a review for his Karma album a couple weeks ago.  Well time for this review.

Blackwood Creek was formed in 1970 by Kip winger, brothers Paul and Nate Winger and Peter Fletcher.  Kip went off to play with Alice Cooper, then later with Winger, but now he his back with his childhood friends.  On first thought, it sounds like descent rock music,, not really heavy, but non pop.  To me, the music sounded a little unrefined.  I don't think there was too much studio tweaking to make it perfect.  I did not hear any obvious flaws with the music but it didn't have the perfect feel that I am getting used to with the recording industry today, and in my opinion, I prefer this sound to the sonically perfect.

"Out in Outer Space" starts out with a rather quick pace for a rock song.  Kudos to them for that.  But then the CD starts into the slower, more country feeling songs, and the middle of the road singalongs.

“Nothing but the Sun” has some interesting and rather catchy chord progressions.  But for such a slow, smooth song, Kip's vocals are leaning more towards the raspy sound.  I wonder if it would have sounded too mushy if he used a pristine vocal.

Kip continues with the raspy vocals on “Jimmy in Georgia” along with southern country sounding guitar work.  Hey, sometimes even I enjoy this sound as well.

“Wooden Shoe” is a great example of how different vocal harmonies can really work in a song.  Even though it's slow, I think just hearing the old school vocals in the beginning of the song make this one of my favorite songs on the album.

PITRIFF RATING - 7/10 - The overall composition of this album just reminds me of late 70's, early 80's.  All the songs are radio friendly in length.  The make up is a couple ballads, a couple quicker songs, and a couple in the middle.  There are more gang vocals on this album almost begging you to sing along.  It would appear that this album has something for everyone.  There were just no bright spots that grabbed me by the skull and said ROCK ON.  I would categorize this as a middle of the road, radio friendly, album.  Overall a solid 7, and I don't think you will be disappointed.

Trent Mohr