Cliff Stevens - Better Days - New Release Review

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Better Days, from Cliff Stevens and it's it's a cool blues rocker. Opening with Better Days, a solid rocker with a good SRV style swagger, features Cliff Stevens on lead guitar and vocal, Serge Dionne on bass, Eric Sauve on keys, and Sam Harrisson on drums. With a "southern rock" flavor, No Room Left has a nice ABB like feel ... I can almost hear Chuck Leavell on piano. With a strong radio melody and select guitar riffs, this is a strong radio contender. Another serious radio contender is Light Of An Angel with a pure pop ballad melody. Stevens does a nice job as vocal front man and paired with Kim Feeney on harmony and a melodic slide solo, pure radio gold. Bluesy ballad, I Love You Still, is my favorite track on the release with cool blues progressions and a strong melody. Stevens lets the music flow with some more aggressive soloing and fluid runs. Very nice. Blues shuffle, True Love has a great feel with nice piano work by Sauve, nice backing vocals by Feeney and a slashing guitar solo of his own. I Been Thinking About You is another solid blues entry in the vein of Guitar Slim. With his vocal call and guitar response, this is a real nice track with an extended guitar workout, boosted by the warm organ of Sauve and the harmonica work of Pat Loiselle. Very nice. Wrapping the release is finger picking Slim Picking featuring Stevens on acoustic guitar. This is generally laid back but artistically nice and a solid closer to a solid release. 

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Cliff Stevens - Nobody But You - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Nobody But You, from Cliff Stevens and it's smooth radio style rock with solid guitar riffs. Opening with How Long, Cliff Stevens hits the road running with a solid entry checking all the boxes. A cool blues rocker with solid vocals and a low key, understated boogie beat. Title track, Nobody But You, has a cool, swinging pace with a nice walking bass line courtesy of Domenic Romanelli, joined by Eric Suave on keys, and Sam Harrisson on drums. Stevens steps out pretty nicely on guitar on tis one in a Robbin Ford style. Very nice. Little By Little is a smooth paced bluesy ballad with solid vocals, a nice melody, nicely paired backing vocals by Kim Feeney and a flowing guitar solo by Stevens. My favorite track on the release is instrumental, Cry Baby with it's walking bass line, aggressive lead guitar and fat organ solo. Very nice. Come Back is a real nice rocker with a straight up bottom and features Stevens on slide guitar with Harrisson really hanging tight on drums. Another of my favorites. Wrapping the release is poppy shuffle, Truth Don't Lie with great percussion, a snappy rhythm and warm vocals. Stevens gets his country style picking in on this number for a happy closer. 

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Cliff Stevens - Got To Be Some Changes Made

Cliff Stevens has been playing guitar professionally for longer than he sometimes cares to admit, around 35 years to be vaguely precise. Like so many blues musicians before him, he spent much of his career displaying his significant talents in relative obscurity as a sideman with various travelling groups. Crowds ranged anywhere from 14,000 at the Montreal International Jazz Festival to 1,400 at the Medley Club in Montreal to 14 drunks in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Like a moth to a flame, Stevens was drawn irresistibly to the genre. He recalls learning to play at 13 jamming for hours to slow blues in a coffee house in his home town of Montreal that was a hot bed for Canadian guitarists like Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush and being influenced by the foremost British and American blues rock guitarists of the day. “Clapton just jammed all night long and I was blown away,” Stevens says of a Cream concert that he attended in Montreal in 1968. “I then saw Johnny Winter in 1970 and memorized every lick I could.” The non-stop grind of six-nights a week on the road mixed with alcohol and drugs took its toll. “I was burned out, disillusioned, I badly needed a break,” says Stevens who stepped away from music from 1982 to 1985 to drive taxi in Toronto. He also went back to school earning a Masters Degree in Music and Education from Concordia University in Montreal and explored other musical styles. “I really got into jazz for a while but I kept getting calls for blues gigs and had no real opportunity to master the jazz language,” he says. After 7 years of sobriety, Stevens headed back out on the road but suffered a relapse while performing in Morocco. “It lasted close to 3 years and almost did me in – it was really rough,” he confides. Alcohol and drug-free since 1998 and with a renewed focus on his forte of the blues, Stevens’ solo career has taken flight. Two songs, Said the Wrong Thing and Crying My Heart Out that he composed in Paris in 1997 appeared to much acclaim on the Preservation Blues Review compilation CD. In 2009, Stevens released his self-titled debut album comprised of 15 tracks, 8 of them original. It spent 18 months on the Top 100 New CD chart and was nominated for Album of the Year by Le Lys Blues. Real Blues Magazine ranked it among the top 10 Canadian blues albums of 2009, Stevens among the top 10 blues guitarists and nominated Don’t Walk Away for Best Original Song. With his Clapton-like looks, raspy vocals and vast knowledge and virtuosity as a blues guitarist, Stevens is recognised as the world’s premier Eric Clapton impersonator, faithfully and respectfully recreating the music of a legend and one of his formative influences.  “Like” Bman’s Facebook page. I use Facebook to spread the word about my blog (Now with translation in over 50 languages). I will not hit you with 50 posts a day. I will not relay senseless nonsense. I use it only to draw attention to some of the key posts on my blog each day. In this way I can get out the word on new talent, venues and blues happenings! - click Here Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE