Haunted Heart

The lonely cover photo and title of this Japanese import give away most of the story; this is a haunted, introspective album of piano-trio jazz very much indebted to Bill Evans and, to a lesser extent, George Shearing…

The more you know about Sammy Kershaw, the more there is to like about his albums. Though Kershaw doesn't write his songs, he makes some of the most autobiographical albums to come from Music Row. If you know that Kershaw quit performing for a year and a half when it threatened his marriage, "Still Lovin' You" assumes greater significance. Even a song as strange as "Queen of My Double Wide Trailer" makes more sense when you learn that Kershaw still owns a trailer in Louisiana, "in case things don't work out."

Hot on the heels of the excellent ‘live in Cologne’ CD/DVD set, Jaded Heart are back with a new album and a new line-up, co-founder and drummer Axel Kruse having departed and been replaced by Bodo Stricker (Callejon) whilst live guitarist Masa Eto has also been bought into the fold to thicken up the band’s sound. The result is a full-on blast of melodic and heavy hitting metal with hints of Tank, Queensryche and Europe working their way through the album’s eleven songs. For classic metal fans, there is no doubt that ‘fight the system’ should be high on your list of albums to check out.