When you look at the liner notes of this album, you realize that there are a lot of good folks on this disc. It features Art, Cyril, and Ivan Neville, Neville Brothers drummer "Mean" Willie Green, Ronnie Wood, and a guy called "Hot Rod" (aka Jeff Beck). Not a bad lineup, eh?The Neville Brothers bring their signature New Orleans funk/soul sound to Jimmy McIntosh's awesome guitar work (shades of Hendrix & SRV) and the result is a brilliant album. This album is filled top to bottom with instrumental tracks that explore the New Orleans funk sound.
McIntosh, like all great guitar heroes, makes his guitar sing. His playing sounds effortless, as it always does with the great ones. You can tell that McIntosh has a lot of rock n roll in his soul (he confesses in his bio to being a huge fan of The Stones), but his sound melds perfectly with the Neville Brothers and Willie Green.
In addition to the McIntosh originals, the band also covers "Slave" (he is a big Stones fan after all) and "Third Stone from the Sun (ten and a half minutes worth). Both of these are outstanding. The band also performs a song called "It Was a Virus." McIntosh wrote the music and Penn Jillette wrote the lyrics. I personally had no ides Penn wrote lyrics. But he does. Pretty well, in fact. And Ivan Neville does a great job giving voice to those lyrics. On a personal note, I listened to "Woody" in the perfect conditions. If ever there was a song for sitting on your sunny patio with a cold beverage, "Woody" is it.
This is an amazing album, especially if you love guitar and New Orleans funk. Do yourself a favor when you put this on. Crank the volume. Trust me, your neighbors might thank you.
