Marc Ford - Weary & Wired
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Free Music Notes for Weary & Wired
Free Music Review: A better guitarist there isn't...
Hit: 5 Stars
Marc Ford is an incredibly talented musician. This CD rips from the get-go! I could listen to the tones he gets for days, but his melodies are fantastic as well. Buy it and you won't be dissapointed. I just wish he could find a way to still make music with the Black Crowes.Free Music Review: Surprisingly Good
Hit: 4 Stars
Overall an excellent effort with surprisingly good production. Always a huge Marc Ford fan, particularly with the Black Crowes. After his recent hasty departure from the band, and reuniting with Burning Tree, I wasn't sure what to expect from this effort. Overall, I enjoy nearly all tracks, in particular 1000 Ways, Dirty Girl, Other Side, Currents. The 2 instrumentals Greasy Chicken & Big Call Back are funky and well recieved.
Bravo Marc...you are the man!
Free Music Review: I keep coming back
Hit: 4 Stars
I buy too many CDs, they're piling up everywhere. I keep coming back to this one, though. Marc Ford is a very fine guitar player. Every time I play this I'm impressed by his talent, and not just the solos, which are great by the way. Smoke Signals is probably my favorite song of the past couple years. AMAZING guitar on that song.
I try to be careful giving 5 stars; this one certainly deserves 4 to me.
Free Music Review: Smoke Signals
Hit: 3 Stars
You have to support Marc Ford with his recent difficulties with the over-egotized Black Crowes. He was always the striking noise on Southern Harmony, and it probably wasn't his fault the albums went downhill after Amorica. His first solo album was an interesting venture, sounding almost Jayhawks-ish at times (with Louris as a guest on some tracks), but ultimately over-long.
Weary and Wired has the same troubles, and then some. My favorite cup of tea is '70s meat and potatos rock but somehow this doesn't quite come off. Most songs seem stunted or too simply constructed (if that can be a criticism of such a genre). I guess it's just that they're not that well conceived. I actually don't have a problem with Ford's singing because it's genuine, but his lyrics are bad even for meat and 'taters standards. Guitar-wise there are bursts of brilliance and slightly more room allowed to hear them, but in a world with the likes of Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks I don't know if this will hit the the note overall (to call Ford a great slide player is just a tad silly, and Haynes just seems to conquer at everything).
There's a lot of genre crossing here, from Free stompers to Southern not-quite fried to distorted blues. People have raved about The Same Thing and it is attention grabbing, but ultimately seems to rip off Jeff Beck circa Trust (also The Allman Brothers do a much meaner, improvised version on their recent tours). I guess that's the problem--probably too derivative and again too long (what's the point of Running Man Blues and Bye Bye Suzy, apart from the former's searing solo???).
In simple terms Marc Ford needs a band. Not the Black Crowes. Not Ben Harper. He needs a captivating singer, probably a co-writer, and he needs to thrust himself that way into the limelight. Then he can stick one to the Crowes. Watch out for the wanted ad.
Free Music Review: Lowering the standard.
Hit: 3 Stars
Several years after the magnificent It's About Time, this album is unfortunately a letdown. Marc chooses to move away from the songwriting and positive energy that filled It's About Time to more soloing and a heavier/muddier sound. The songs on It's About Time were reflective and/or positive, but here we get mostly simple, negative rock lyrics. Some of the songs don't seem finished or well written enough either, as if they're just an excuse to jam. This leaning doesn't work as the band as a unit sounds flat and ordinary.
There is some good guitar playing of course, as well as Marc's underrated voice. Smoke Signals is a standout track and The Other Side and Currents impress. But the album is too full of songs that sound like any guitarist laying down some heavy riffs and singing about Dirty Girl and Don't Come Around. We've heard it all before. Marc shouldn't have to remake It's About Time, and it's hard to say if commercial success was aimed at here, but there isn't enough here to separate Weary and Wired from any number of other decent singer/guitar records around.