Roger “Hurricane” Wilson – I Did What I Wanted To!
Bluestorm Records
12 songs – 49 minutes
I Did What I Wanted To! is Roger “Hurricane” Wilson’s 25th CD, released in what is his 50th year as a professional musician and features 11 self-penned blues-rock tracks together with one cover. Unfortunately, neither the promotional material that accompanies the CD, the CD itself, nor Wilson’s website provide much information about the album, such as where and when it was recorded or even who performs on it. What we do know is that Wilson provides all guitars and vocals, while the drums and percussion are credited to the Singular Sound Rhythm Section and all other instruments are credited to the Triple Play Allstars. Other than that, there isn’t much information easily available about this album.
As for the music itself, it sits very much in the category of guitar-driven blues-rock, with occasional forays into guitar-driven country-rock. The opening “I’m Coming Home” is indicative of the rest of the album as it roars out of the speakers with muscular authority. The song distinguishes itself from many other blues-rock songs through the neat three-chord descending keyboard lick at the end of each verse and nearly every song on the album has a similarly distinctive element to it. It’s clear a lot of thought has gone into song structure. Tracks like the classic rock of “Solid Gold Love” and “If This Is Love” have particularly catchy choruses. Wilson is an adroit, nimble-fingered guitarist and the songs rightly highlight his fluid solos. His opening solo on the introduction to “I Did What I Wanted To” is a prime example. Ditto his slide guitar on “I’m Through With The Blues”. His voice however is less impressive, often being masked in heavy reverb, and sometimes struggling with the rhythm of the song on tracks such as the acoustic “Why Can’t It Be Like Christmas Everyday?”. To his credit, however, Wilson’s lyrics extend past the traditional love-lost, love-won subjects of many blues songs to include suicide-awareness on “Sittin’ On A Stallion” with its unusual metaphor: “Now you’re sitting on a stallion, with no idea how to ride. While you are living your dream, something’s still not right. You have it all, please don’t end your life. You’re sitting on a stallion, with no idea how to ride.” He also includes a frankly off-the-wall homage to a certain Atlanta media mogul and philanthropist in “Legacy Of Ted Turner”.
The Atlanta connection also arises on the album’s sole cover track, “Food, Phone, Gas & Lodging”, originally recorded in 1975 by the Eric Quincy Tate Group out of Atlanta.
There are plenty of enjoyable moments on I Did What I Wanted To!, but it’s difficult to shake the sense that this is something of a hurried release. The mix in particular is quite muddy in places, giving the album something of a sense of a demo. Still, it’s worth checking out if your tastes lean to the country-rock side of things and you like lashings of first class guitar playing in your music.
