Simon McBride

by | Nov 19, 2012 | Reviews

Crossing The Line

Belfast, Northern Ireland

(Nugene Records)

 

“Belfastest”

 

The holy trinity of Belfast rock and roll – Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, and Gary Moore – might be on the verge of becoming a four-leaf clover.  Taking up the mantle of blues guitar extraordinaire after Gary Moore’s death last year, Simon McBride takes his gunslinging across the pond for his blistering U.S. debut (and third album overall), Crossing the Line.

It seems every few years there’s a new 8-year-old prodigy shredding at a state fair somewhere on YouTube who’s going to be the “savior of blues”…and then that’s the last you hear about him.  Simon McBride was that prodigy.  The man can flat out play – with a precision and speed that could have been destined for indulgent YouTube novelty – if it weren’t for his rock-solid songwriting and variety.

Simon McBride is more than a blues pyrotechnic.  Like later Jimmy Page, the fireworks are built around the songs, rather than an excuse for them.  And the songs are often as indebted to an ’80s metal swagger or a Ted Nugent sneer as they are to blues.  As such, Crossing The Line has plenty of crossover potential to give an American rock audience a stiff shot of Irish blues.

Ireland: home of whiskey, shamrocks, Blarney stones – and searing, face-melting blues-rock guitar – naturally.

Produced by Richard Pravitt

Mastered and Mixed by Peter Denenberg

 

www.simonmcbride.net