Two Sides of If

by

Vivian Campbell

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This is interesting, and a worthwhile buy, for several reasons. First, the music you'll find here is very much of a straight blues vein, it's not "blues rock", it's blues. It's even grittier than one might expect from a former guitarist of a pretty-boy band like Def Leppard.

Campbell certainly has chops and he displays his abilities to solid effect within the confines of these songs. What's a genuine surprise is how effective his vocals are on most of the cuts - he does a very enjoyable job on Rory Gallagher's "Calling Card" and sounds like he was born to sing James Pryor's "Good or Bad Times". Unfortunately, Campbell doesn't have quite the vocal cajones to make much of an impression on "I'm Ready" or "The Hunter"...it's hard to listen to those songs without comparing these versions to those sung by the likes of Muddy Waters, Steve Marriott, and Paul Rodgers, so Campbell pits himself against some stiff competition in that regard.

This cd also includes performances by drummer extrodinaire Terry Bozzio (who seems to be somewhat under-challenged operating in the blues context) and Joan Osborne who absolutely smokes on "Spoonful"! Now, if Osborne had handled the lead vocals on "I'm Ready" and "The Hunter" this release would have been elevated to a whole 'nother realm!

And what's with Billy Gibbons? For years he was under the thumb of Bill Ham's management of ZZ Top and wasn't allowed to sit in with anybody, now he's shown up in relatively short order, first on BB King's latest and then on two songs on this one. Regardless of his motivation, Gibbons sounds like he's having fun here, even if his playing is a bit more complimentary to that of Campbell's rather than sparking competitive fires.

This is good stuff and it's great that a talent like Campbell is back in the game. I can't help but wonder what it would be like if he and Jake E. Lee would form a band, with Joan Osborne on vocals, maybe Tim Bogert on bass, and either Bozzio or Aysnley Dunbar on drums...that's a combo I'd pay to hear have a whack at "I Ain't Superstitious"!

All in, I give this one 3 1/2 stars and highly recommend it.