Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
After four decades thrilling fans and audiences alike as one of the great American rock entertainers, Sammy Hagar has recorded new tracks and put a Hagar-like slant on a couple of absolute towering monsters in which the devotees and aficionados will be knocking themselves out for to have as part of the collection. After great and deserved success with bands such as the enormous fantastic Chickenfoot and the iconic Van Halen, Sammy Hagar & Friends relishes in the man’s ability and undoubted charisma to showcase that even now he is still one of the top draws of rock’s glittering establishment.
Even if it was just Sammy Hagar as the main selling point of the recording, the record would be one that would sit proudly in the collection but add in to the mix some of the greats he has admired and worked with during his career, the album will be one that takes on all comers due to its very heavy weight swagger and style. With contributions from valiant and gallant friends such as Neal Schon, Michael Anthony, Dave Zirbel, the beautiful sound of Nancy Wilson, the growling drumbeat of Chad Smith and the strength of a moment of delicious sweeping vocals of Kid Rock making a couple of exceptional appearances then this album will appeal right across the range.
Ten very terrific tracks, ten reasons in which to revel in the heady mix of reminisce and look to the future and chiefly the reason is the way that Sammy Hagar pulls all those around him in to make an album that rocks mightier than Mount Rushmore.
Kicking off with what can only be with the biggest tongue in cheek track around, Winding Down, blows any latent cobwebs that have built up since the last Chickenfoot album. It gives the listener to reason they need to breathe deep, set the mind and musical muscle on alert for what it is about to receive and then get ready to be rocked out several times over in what can only be described as an album that delights in taking the listener to the point and back in a self-gratifying and very cool way.
With tracks such as Not Going Down, the fantastic collaboration of Knockdown Dragout, which features the first of Kid Rock’s vocals, the very cool All We Need is an Island, in which the superb Nancy Wilson’s guest appearance is to die for and for those getting the deluxe edition, a brilliantly captured live version of Space Station #5 from the Ronnie Montrose Tribute Concert and which features the sublime Joe Satriani’s outstanding guitar.
Sammy Hagar & Friends is not just an album to own, it is a chance to keep hearing the continuing story of one of the finest American rock vocalists ever to be found hiding in the grooves of an album or set down on a C.D. for all to hear.
Sammy Hagar & Friends is released via Frontier Records on September 27th.
Ian D. Hall