Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 28 - Chicken Shack - "Unlucky Boy" (1973)

I don't know why this album is called "Unlucky Boy", any more than the previous one was called "Imagination Lady". They do sound a bit like names of race-horses though, so maybe that's the reason.

OK, so I've moved from Chicken Shack's 5th to their 6th album now, and is it any better or any worse? WEll, it's slightly different, and this may be down to a change in personnel. Although Stan Webb still handles guitar and vocals, bass-player John Glascock has gone, and since the previous band was a three-piece, that leaves only Paul Hancox on drums. Chicken Shack is now a five-piece with the afforementioned Bob Daisley on bass, Tony Ashton on piano, and Chris Mercer on saxophone.

This has expanded Chicken Shack's sound somewhat, at the risk of losing some of the tightness of the previous power trio of Webb, Glascock and Hancox. But the band is still very much Webb's vehicle, and the music still dominated by his alternately soloing and riffing guitar. This was their last studio album for some years, as Chicken Shack finally disbanded after a live album in 1974, when Stan Webb left to join up with his old mates in Savoy Brown.

Is it any good? Yeah, I think so. In one sense it's very much of it's time, being almost indistinguishable from the British Heavy Rock bands that were themselves laying the foundations for the Heavy Metal of the late 70s. But in another sense it's also timeless, because it's the Blues, and the Blues always dates very well. A good solid album.

Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 27 - Chicken Shack - "Imagination Lady" (1972)

Some blues on the bus this morning. We're not talking Blind Lemon Jefferson or B.B. King here. This is British Blues (think Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) which means it's heavily riff-laden, and nobody is talking about how they've been down since their lady left them. In many ways British Blues was the forerunner of what later became "Heavy Rock" (Deep Purple et al) and you can certainly hear it in this album. Dominated by Stan Webb's solid guitar-work, every track is absolutely dripping with solos. If you like your blues powerful and rockin', or if you like your rock loud and bluesy, you'll like this album. I suspect I will be playing it on the way home as well today.

This is actually Chicken Shack's 5th album (they formed in 1968), and is probably not representative of the rest of their discography, so I'll be wary of listening to any of their other albums. In a Spinal Tap-esque way they've been through several lineup changes over the years and a list of past & future members reads like a roll-call of the British blues and rock elite. Both Bob Daisley (bass player with Ozzy Osbourne) and Tony Ashton (keyboardist with Paice, Ashton, Lord) have played with Chicken Shack, as did drummers Keef Hartley and Alan Powell (later of Hawkwind) In fact prior to this very album the bass player, keyboardist and drummer all left to join another Blues outfit, Savoy Brown (the keyboardist in question being Paul Raymond, later of UFO).

Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 22 - Glenn Hughes & Tony Iommi "The DEP Sessions" (2004)

What a find! Back in 1996 Hughes and Iommi dropped into Birmingham's DEP studios to rekindle their working relationship from the Sabbath album "Seventh Star" (I really must listen to that). These tracks were recorded, but the sessions cut short when Iommi returned to a re-formed Black Sabbath. Fast forward to 2004 and the tracks are finally cleaned up and released on CD.

Now I've always found Tony Iommi's guitarwork to be a bit soulless. Not in a bad way, but if you're listening to Black Sabbath, you're not listening for the sweetness and the flowers. Iommi's music is cruel and cutting, riffs that slice into you like indifferent demons from the deepest bowels of hell. We're not talking warm comforting blues here.

But Glenn Hughes has exactly that kind of a blues voice, a bit like Paul Rodgers and a bit like David Coverdale. Consequently this album sounds like a weird crossover between Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, like and yet unlike Gillan's one-album stint with Sabbath. In fact it's kind of like the opposite side of the coin to that collaboration. Whereas "Born Again" submerged Gillan's vocals in the relentless Sabbath guitar machine, Hughes here holds his own and complements Iommi's guitar beautifully, adding the soul and the heart that Iommi lacks.

If "Born Again" was chalk and cheese, "The DEP Sessions" is ice cream and soda. I'll leave you to guess who's who.

Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 5 - Peter Green "In The Skies" (1979)

I first heard this on the radio in the mid-80s and at the time had no idea who Peter Green was, but liked the album. I now know that Peter Green was the driving force behind early Fleetwood Mac, who left in 1970 after basically taking too many drugs, and that this was his first attempt to dip his toe in the water after 8 years as a virtual recluse.

It's not what you'd call a mind-blowing album, but it has a warm and quietly persuasive rhythm section that gets under your skin, and some tasty blues guitar work that wins you over. Snowy White's on this one as well, and Pete Bardens from Camel on keyboards.

Good album for a late winter's night in front of the fire with a bottle of fine wine and a spliff.

(See what I did there? Advising you to listen to someone's drug rehabilitation album while smoking marijuana?" How very Rock 'n' Roll)