Alex Lopez – Looking For A Change
Maremil Music – 2023
10 tracks; 43 minutes
Growing up in Ohio, Alex was heavily influenced by the British invasion and guitarists Page, Clapton, Beck and Hendrix. Now based in Florida, Alex’s music is at the rock end of the blues-rock spectrum as he and his power trio band deliver ten tracks of hard-rocking material, Alex on lead guitar and vocals, Steve Roberts bass and Kana Leimbach drums. Alex wrote all bar one of the ten songs here, covering a Cream classic as the last cut on the album.
The band sets out its stall on an opening salvo of three heavy tracks. “Train” starts with cowbell and builds up a considerable head of steam as Alex discovers that this girl will not let anyone or anything get in her way along the route. “Whiskey Covered Woman” has a Zeppelin feel with lots of powerful riffs and crunching drums and it is certainly true that “Blues They Rock” on the third cut which has a relentless riff at its core and a jagged solo overdubbed. The title track takes the pace down a notch with a tune that reminded this reviewer of Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright” before Alex shows us a different side to his playing with “Spanish Blues” which has sensitive lyrics and some gentle playing before developing into a dramatic Latin rock outro.
“Tell Me” is a straight blues track with lyrics of bitter disappointment as Alex fears that her words of love are not true, his discordant guitar fills reflecting his angst. “Wild As The Wind” describes the hard life that the protagonist has had to overcome to get to where he is now, played to a funky riff with booming bass and solid drums before the band successfully blends funk and rock elements in celebration of “She”. Alex plays and sings well on the ballad “Night Closing In”, his guitar singing in the middle section. The cover is a pretty straight take on Jack Bruce’s “Politician”, a Cream song that is not often covered and the band does a solid job on it, the familiar riff present and correct, the vocals handled by bassist Steve, leaving Alex to range far and wide in his extended solo.
If blues-rock is your area of interest this release is worth investigating.