BRIAN HOWE - review added 8th February 2010
Album Review: Circus Bar (2010)
For fans of: Rock... and covering SOiL
Brian Howe is something of a legend in rock circles. He started his career back in the early 1980's as lead singer for crazy-animal-hunting-man Ted Nugent, on the Penetrator album and subsequent world tour. A year after that, Simon Kirke and Mick Ralphs asked Brian to replace Paul Rodgers as lead singer of Bad Company.
Over the next decade, Brian wrote and sold almost 20 million records with the band, including the 1993 live CD What You Hear Is What You Get - The Best of Bad Company - Live, plus radio and video hits like 'Holy Water', 'If You Needed Somebody', 'No Smoke Without A Fire' and more.
Circus Bar is Brian's 2nd solo CD and follows 13 years after his first - Tangled in Blue (aka Touch in Europe). Featured in the creation of the album are producer and songwriting partner Brooks Paschal who also plays some guitar and bass, Pat Travers, Dean Aicher, James Paul Wisner, and Tyson Shipman on guitar, Wayne Nelson and Miguel Gonzalez on bass, Matt Brown on drums, and Luke Davids on piano and strings. The title of the record comes from a bar managed by circus performers where Brian and Brooks spent their creative time.
The sound of Circus Bar is often upbeat, modern and hard rocking. It's not necessarily what you'd expect from someone who's been in the industry for nigh on 30 years. There's material here that should be doing the rounds on MTV and so on. It's impeccably performed, and Brian's voice is sensational - although sometimes a little too perfect for its own good (if you could call that a complaint!)
Track-wise, the opener 'I'm Back' is bright, airy and has an overwhelming feel good vibe. 'Life's Mystery' is über-modern and could show the kids a thing or two about how to make a contemporary rocker. 'There's This Girl', on the other hand, is totally off the scale. Music really doesn't get a lot better than this. Absolutely phenomenal!
The Caribbean tinged 'Could Have Been You' is a summer anthem in the making. 'Surrounded', a cover of the track by SOiL from 2009's Picture Perfect album, is an excellent track. It's a strange choice covering such a new song, but the result speaks for itself. 'Flying' is a reasonably nice, if bordering-on-sickly-sweet pop ballad. Not my thing I'm afraid. 'How It Could Have Been' is back into positive territory in a big way. Like a lot of tracks on the album, it focuses on big friendly hooks over grit and fire. Circus Bar has a big smile on its face, even when it's sad.
'My Town' is a fine up tempo entry. 'How ‘Bout That' is a cover of the Bad Company track - and one of the ones Brian sang originally. It's a great song that really reminds me of the Eagles. 'Feels Like I’m Coming Home' is more of the same soft pleasant rock. Again; brilliantly nice, but not going to pull your pants down. 'If You Want Trouble' on the other hand definitely will pull your pants down. Then it'll smack your butt and wee in your shoes. It's a boisterous hard rocker that's built around drinking, partying and fighting and is a real change to most of the other tracks on the album.
'Feelings' starts off in the same overly-mild vein as 'Flying', but the chorus is much bolder and better. 'Holy Water' is another Bad Company cover, and is again superb. Final track 'Little George Street' is better listened to than described. It's a bit mad!
Circus Bar really is a good album. It's a touch quiet in places, but the big moments really are massive. Kudos to Brian Howe for sounding so great, but the real prize goes to everyone for making such a cohesive, professional and worthy-of-praise album.
Check out... 'There's This Girl'. Awesome!
Track List:
01. I’m Back
02. Life’s Mystery
03. There’s This Girl
04. Could Have Been You
05. Surrounded
06. Flying
07. How It Could Have Been
08. My Town
09. How ‘Bout That
10. Feels Like I’m Coming Home
11. If You Want Trouble
12. Feelings
13. Holy Water
14. Little George Street
Label: Frontiers Records
Artist's website(s): Brian Howe , MySpace
