Brian Robertson-Diamonds and dirt

SPV
2011

Guitarist Brian Robertson is of course most known for his time in Thin Lizzy, but he also had a short stint with Motorhead and was in Wild Horses with Rainbow/Dio bassist Jimmy Bain. Some albums have a story behind them and this one is no exception. Robertson uncovered some tapes (yes, tapes) of some previously unreleased songs he had worked on some time before. He passed them on to his friend Søren Lindberg and asked him to have a listen. Lindberg checked them and called Robertson back and told him he had some brilliant sutff on there and maybe he should consider doing an album with them. So from old tapes to new album the seeds were sown and Robertson recruited drummer Ian Haugland (Europe) and bassist Nalley Påhlsson (Treat and Therion). Plus Leif Sundin (ex-Michael Schenker Group) was recruited as an additional vocalist, and Liny Wood joined as a backing vocalist. Much of the attention on this album might very well be directed towards the Thin Lizzy music as "It's Only Money" from Nightlife and "Running Back" from Jailbreak appear here. We also get three Frankie Miller covers as well. The covers are tight and respectful to the originals, but Brian adds his own style to boot. The originals are straight up classic rock with maybe a touch of mid-late 80's hard rock. The melodies are smooth and easy to get into. The real focus is Robertson's playing and this whole album will have everyone asking "why hasn't he done more in the last twenty some years?". Indeed his rhythms and solos subtle yet stunning. He is just such a groove style player. He was a great with Thin Lizzy and his one album with Motorhead "Another perfect day" is criminally underrated. The same flair he brought to those albums still shines through in his playing today. It all just flows so easily because he really sounds like one of those players who can just pluck these sounds out and make it sound like it took him a few minutes to come up with it. Good thing he listened to his friend Lindberg and followed up completing and releasing those songs because this is an impressive display that fans of his are going to love.