Rick Springfield – The Snake King

Has Rick Springfield gone all snake on us, meandering his followers down his blues infused rocky road of life? The intro to the opening track “In the land of the blind”, seems to have a familiar sound, maybe this as on purpose but there’s definitely a similarity to Bon Jovi’s “These Days” intro to be heard, but Rick is no poor man’s Bon Jovi.  At 68 years young, the Australian born singer is still aiming high with his 17th album. This platinum album seller has continued to grace the record stands over the years and now we see him return to his Blues roots.

Lyrically, Rick is an excellent story teller and the intro’s he uses to begin the tracks on this album, set the pace and the scene for the stories within, and the stories are a lot deeper and meaningful than some of the flower pop songs we’ve heard from past Rick, and perhaps that’s why he had to shed his pop skin to make the different turn. The music itself is more distinguished throughout, so maybe Rick is the Snake King, for on these songs Blues for the disillusion and Voodoo House you can really hear there is a cathartic story to be told, hooking you in with their modern blues rock style, and just when you thought you got in to the rhythmic blues grass sound, “Santa is an anagram” jumps out and takes you to the ram jam, riff style piano playing of old’ fashion blues rock n roll, think Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly!”

Rick definitely seems to be the master of his blues cruise, with his eclectic mix of instruments from electric piano, electric and electric slide guitars, to synth horns, violin, mandolin, banjo and ukulele on the last track “Orpheus of the Underworld” and just like Orpheus (for those not familiar with Greek mythology Orpheus was an ancient Greek legendary hero with superhuman musical skills) he’s definitely honing them. Rick Springfield has always remained true to himself and no matter the guise of the album be it, pop, rock, country or blues he doesn’t disappoint.

If you’re lucky enough to live in the USA, you can catch Rick on tour at http://rickspringfield.com/concerts/