Album Review by EDF
Detroit born Jeff Laine grew up listening to Motown and the MC5. He asked his parents for a guitar and they eventually gave in and bought him one and years later Laine went on to perform in local rock bands. He moved to Los Angeles with a former bandmate who went on to form a group called The Knack. Laine himself became influenced by R&B legend Etta James. Laine drifted in and out of various employments via a local acclaimed group, working in a burger joint as a bus boy as well as dealing with personal tragedy and loss. Laine eventually picked himself up and through other musical experiences, eventually got enough material to record the apt title LONG WAY TO GO.
With a mixture of twangy guitar, made famous by Chris Isaak and a vocal style not too unlike that of Johnny Cash, we have a right old mixture of country and blues. Tales of beasts out to get you, DEAD MAN, a song to his son Maximilian SON and the down dirty blues influenced JACK ME UP are some of the high points here. At times you feel as if you are on a trip with Laine in the driving seat as he tries to find the right words to say, “I’m not much for poetry, those words are hard to say”.
This album is for fans of singer/songwriters who do not have a big budget for grandiose production and have to rely on the songs they’ve written and the great musicians backing them up. This is where the future of music is heading and it will be personal lyrics rather than commercial catchy tunes that will gain the likes of Jeff Laine a wider audience while others struggle to come up with a new rhyme.
