Friday, July 22, 2011

JAMIE ALLEN: "The Storyteller"


Rating: 8/10

Label: TSM/SLW 2011

Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Jamie Allen is "The Storyteller" (at least according to the album name) and what kind of stories are there to expect from songtitles such as: "Smoke and Mirrors", "That's Rock N Roll", "The Way I Roll", "Superman", "She Gets Around" and "The Same Old Feeling"??? Well, keeping in mind that Jamie's a Poison Tribute frontman and that Johnny Lima's onboard as producer/guitarist/backgroundvocals and you'll pretty much get what you deserve. Rather typical, but very professional and at times, really catchy U.S. Rock in the style of Bret Michaels, Poison, and the Lima-dude.

To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised this hasn't been picked up and released by any Euro-label or even Perris Records in the states? Cocky Jaime had this to say about the album and I quote: "I wanted to do it right the first time and with Johnny's killer production mixed with all the big hooks I had written for the album, I knew that it would be the perfect recipe for hard rock bliss", end quote. Big words from a singer in a Poison Tribute band!!! I'm not saying he's bang on the money, but neither far off the truth. "The Storyteller" beats the living crap outta anything released by Bret 'Bozo' Michaels in the past 10, 15, 20? years. Lite sleaze rock vs. 'modern cowboy' tunes works out nicely on this debut. Perhaps just a little bit too much 'twang and 'Cowboy at times though ("Time Alone", etc), nontheless, pretty impressive.

That's not to say that this record has any other connotations (hello Bon Jovi!), merely that unlike many other melodic acts, Jamie know the secret of keeping it pretty straightforward, "simple" and catchy, keep the beat going and make sure the riffs are flying across the room. Nice!

www.jamieallenrocks.com

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