Randy Bachman
Heavy Blues
Stream to April 14
The impetus for Heavy Blues, the new album from Randy Bachman, was a conversation with Neil Young.
From one Canadian icon to another, Young said, "If you're going to do a new album, don't do the same old thing and call it new. Start from scratch, reinvent yourself and do something that scares and challenges you," Bachman recounts in the liner notes to Heavy Blues.
In order to do something new, Bachman had to do something old. On Heavy Blues, Bachman looks back to the guitar blues of the '50s and the London blues explosion of the '60s for inspiration, crafting an album that is heavy on rhythm and guitar solos, the latter courtesy of guest guitarists Peter Frampton, Neil Young, Luke Doucet, the late Jeff Healey and more.
"They were each asked to incorporate only what they felt fit into the mix and each solo kicked the song up several notches," Bachman writes.
See for yourself by streaming the album above. Available April 14, you can pre-order Heavy Blues on Amazon here.