Can't Rush Greatness

This Canadian rock group started around 1970, simply known as Mahogany Rush. Frank Marino was added to the title later. Marino served as the lead singer, guitarist, and percussionist. Other members were bass guitarist Paul Harwood and drummer Jimmy Ayoub. In the early '80s, rhythm guitarist Vince Marino, Frank's brother, was added to the lineup. A couple of years after that, Ayoub walked, and drummer Tim Biery stepped in to replace him. Mahogany Rush released its debut album in 1973. It was the first of more than a dozen full-length recordings the group completed over the next two-plus decades.

Mahogany Rush is a Canadian progressive rock band led by guitarist Frank Marino. The band had its peak of popularity in the 1970s, playing such venues as California Jam II together with bands such as Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and Heart. The band is perhaps best known for Marino's soaring lead guitar which bears a strong resemblance to the playing of Jimi Hendrix. Long term members of the band have included bassist Paul Harwood and drummer Jimmy Ayoub, and Frank's brother Vince on guitar; Frank Marino is the sole continuous member of the band. In the late 70's and onward, the group toured as Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush and at times is referred to simply as Frank Marino at certain shows, and on a couple of albums. Mahogany Rush IV is the fourth studio album by band Mahogany Rush.

Bobby Rush got dirty on 2013's Down in Louisiana but with 2014's Decisions, he returns to his slick blues-funk ways, but this doesn't mean it's a rote affair by any means. He has teamed up with the band Blinddog Smokin' and, for the first time in his career, recorded with fellow Louisiana legend Dr. John. Mac Rebennack shows up on the opening "Another Murder in New Orleans," a deeply soulful and searching portrait of the violence that often plagues the Big Easy but, really, that's the only instance when good times aren't on Rush's mind. He leers about being a "Funky Old Man" and winks about what happens on "Bobby Rush's Bus," two songs that set the pace and attitude for much of the rest of Decisions.

Just as the title implies, Raw is Bobby Rush at his most elemental: a man, his acoustic guitar, and his foot stamping out a beat on an amplified board. A little harmonica now and then, and a Dobro played with a bottleneck slide on the rollicking "Glad to Get You Back," but that's it for ornamentation. Although most of 13 songs are Rush originals, he also essays three standards, Larry Williams' early rock classic "Boney Maroney," Muddy Waters' "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," and – fearlessly – "Howlin' Wolf" itself, which he slows down into a funereal dirge. Rush calls his music "folk funk," but in reality, Rush is the modern equivalent of the first country bluesmen, before the moves to Memphis and Chicago added full-band arrangements and electricity. But Rush isn't a hidebound traditionalist attempting to resurrect a past form for its own sake; Raw crackles with the energy of a musician who knows that he's working in the style that best suits his own personal gifts. This is a hundred times more listenable than yet another blues band plodding through a set of tenth-generation rewrites of "Sweet Home Chicago," and could well be the blues recording of 2007.

Digital (Web) version contains one bonus track A Passage to Bangkok (Live in Manchester). To celebrate 40 years of Permanent Waves, Rush has reissued their iconic studio album as a super deluxe edition box set containing 3 LPs, 2 CDs, and several fan collectibles. These live tracks come from three stops on the Permanent Waves World Tour 1980: Manchester Apollo, Manchester, England; Hammersmith Odeon, London, England; and Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri. Permanent Waves is the band’s first of many iconic visits to Le Studio recording studio in Morin Heights, Quebec which has been nicknamed Rush’s Abbey Road Studios.

Whereas Rush's first two releases, their self-titled debut and Fly by Night, helped create a buzz among hard rock fans worldwide, the more progressive third release, Caress of Steel, confused many of their supporters. Rush knew it was now or never with their fourth release, and they delivered just in time – 1976's 2112 proved to be their much sought-after commercial breakthrough and remains one of their most popular albums…