Rosedale Junction – Going Off the Rails
Self Released
9 tracks
Rosedale Junction is a blues and Americana band based on Boston. This is their third release since 2021. Tomy Soriero produced the album, wrote the original music, plays some wicked guitar and, when needed, the bass, too.
Four singers and eleven musicians appear on the album. Dgiovahni Denize is on vocals for six cuts, Richard Farrell does the vocals on one, Joel Jorgensen is on vocals on another, and Elishema Mannie handles lead vocals for the final track and backing vocals throughout. Tony Soriero is on guitar, bass, and resonator and Joe Soriero is on guitar. Roger Smith plays keys, piano and organ, Jim Riley is on drums, and Trent Williamson is on harmonica. The horns on track 7 are Mark Morgan (horn arrangement and trumpet), Josh Scalf (trombone) and Max Dvorin (tenor sax and baritone sax). Phil Madeira is on the organ. On a track each are Alex Allison (programed drums) and Andy Ellison (pedal steel guitar). Tony Soriero wrote the nine original cuts. The two covers are “Waiting Around to Die” (Townes Van Zandt) and “High Time We Went” (Joe Cocker and Chris Stainton).
“Goin’ Off The Rails” features some solid slide and electric guitar with some bass vocal chanting that reminds me of monks chanting. There is also decent organ work here. “Chicken Man Blues” is an acoustic guitar tune with some metered spoken word (not rapping, just a kind of story telling) and electric backing guitar with organ once again adding to the mix. Next is “Quarter Mile Blues,” featuring more great guitar and the deep baritone voice of Denize now singing a bit, kind of cowboy style. “Buckland Street” features harp and a downhome story told to a younger person, retelling it from his youth where he heard it in front of a package story. As we transition into the song, we get the lamentful tale of a long hard life with some excellent harp adding to the mood and fitting in quite well with the mood.
“Momma Sure Was Right” is a cut about a mother warning her son about women. It’s a slow blues with another story to tell, a warning that turned out to be one that should have been heeded. Harp, keys and guitars add nicely to the mix. “Waiting Around to Die” follows, featuring wicked pedal steel work and more dark spoken word storytelling. Interesting stuff. “Junkin’ Down and Funkin’ Up” follows, more spoken word styled lyrics for the most part, lots of wicked harp and a cool, driving beat.
An extended version of the opening cut features lots more of great guitars and the Green Line of the Boston MBTA. Really? The finale is “High Time We Met,” with lots of slide and guitar and very nice vocals by Mannie, the best on he album. It’s a solid finish to a sometime quirky but always interesting album.
The vocals are probably the weakest link here. Denize handles 2/3 of them and his deep baritone and lots of spoken word I’m sorry but it doesn’t do justice to the rest of great musicianship here. He’s interesting but it doesn’t blend well and is sometimes distracting. Other than that, it’s a well crafted album of moslty cool original songs, fine guitar efforts and a lot of overall well done instrumental playing.
