Post by jptheprofessor on Jul 25, 2006 18:25:24 GMT -5
IAN GILLAN – GILLAN’S INN (Immergent Records) Celebrating 40 years in the music business, Ian Gillan revisits his past on his new studio album, Gillan’s Inn. Gillan updates songs from his solo career, his Deep Purple years and brief Black Sabbath stint over the course of the album’s 14 tracks, with help from a celebrity cast of musicians. One immediate highlight throughout the album is Gillan’s voice, which has held up amazingly well over the years, and still displays plenty of grit, firepower and range here. Guests permeate every track; guitar great Joe Satriani contributes his fast and fiery fretboard work to updates of Gillan’s “Unchain Your Brain” and “Hang Me Out to Dry,” plus Deep Purple’s “Speed King.” Former Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth provides guitar licks on remakes of Gillan’s Day Late and a Dollar Short” and the ballad “Loving on Borrowed Time.” Jeff Healey provides bluesy lead guitar work on “When A Blind Man Cries,” a song from Deep Purple’s Machine Head sessions. Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers, once a member of Gillan, appears on “Bluesy Blue Sea;” while Tony Iommi makes an appearance on an update of “Trashed,” which appeared on the lone Black Sabbath album to feature Ian Gillan on lead vocals, 1983’s Born Again. Ian’s Deep Purple bandmates Steve Morse, Roger Glover, Ian Paice and Don Airey all put in appearances on the album, as do former Deep Purple keyboard man Jon Lord, Johnny Rzeznik and Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls, and singers Ronnie James Dio and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott; the latter on a bonus track rendition of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.” The album is a Dual Disc, with a DVD side featuring the songs in 5.1 surround sound, footage from the making of the album, bootleg live footage and more. Produced by veteran knob twister Nick Blagona and recorded at a variety of studios, Gillan’s Inn maintains a crisp, hard-rocking consistency; with Ian Gillan’s strong voice prominent and clear in the mix. Ian Gillan doesn’t reinvent the wheel here, but celebrates his hard-rocking legacy on Gillan’s Inn, an album that shows listeners where he has musically been over his 40-year career. Fans of Gillan will be happy to find that the man can still belt out the voice, and shows no signs of slowing down.