[.ca] Jukebox (Dlx Ed) (W/Bonus Dvd)

The boys are back!:
ok...I admit I am a huge fan of both Burton and Randy, but was expecting to hear just another run of the mill covers album. Boy was I wrong. The boys really created something special here. It nostalgic, fun, and is one of those albums you want to listen to from start to finish. You will find yourself cranking up the volume. Burton's playing and vocals are stellar. His seemingly effortless vocal delivery on the Cliff Richard tune "Don't Talk To Him" is simply amazing and the song could easily be a hit on radio. Randy's guitar work is superb, and his vocals on this album will knock your socks off! Take a listen and hear how "The Letter", and "Who Do You Love" totally rock. The band (Carpet Frogs) are tight...and they seem to understand the material perfectly. The only downside is that this may not get the radio play it deserves. Kudos to the boys...this has been in my CD player since I first picked it up. I'm looking forward to Vol 2.

First time back in the studio in 20 years is a winner:
For their first recording together since the aborted Thunderbird Sessions in 1987 (available through Randy's website and at the duo's shows), Canadian music legends Randy Bachman (The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive) and Burton Cummings (The Guess Who, solo hits) opted for 17 covers of their teenaged songs....songs they learned how to play to, as they say in the liner notes. Setlist: Baby Come Back (first done by The Equals) Who Do You Love ->Hey Bo Diddley ->Not Fade Away I'm Happy Just To Dance With You (The Beatles) The Walk (Jimmy McCracklin) Don't Talk To Him (Cliff Richards & The Shadows) Man of Mystery (instrumental by The Shadows) Ain't That Jus Like A Woman (Fats Domino) Little Queenie (Chuck Berry) Good Times (Sam Cooke) Like A Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan) Judy In Disguis (With Glasses)(John Fred & The Playboy Band) Don't You Just Know It (Huey Piano Smith & The Clowns) Yeh, Yeh (Georgie Fame) Agent Double-O Soul (Edwin Starr, best known for War) The Letter (Box Tops) Ain't That Loving You Baby (Elvis) American Woman 2007 (fun shuffle version the duo's been playing since reuniting) The goal with Jukebox was to have fun resurrecting obscure, fun songs, often with fab riffs (and you know Randy loves riffs). There's a wide variety of sounds here, from '60s reverb guitars to straight, innocent, frothy '50s pop (complete with fun backing vocals and shouts in the studio) to Hendrix-style rock guitar -- Randy found a Hendrix at Monterey arrangement to Like A Rolling Stone and made that his template for Like A Rolling Stone. Just don't expect any classic Cummings ballads along the lines of Stand Tall or I Will Play a Rhapsody. The closest they come is Randy singing the Beatles song. The two are remarkably generous towards each other when it comes to arrangements. Burton, in particular, raves over several Randy solos and, in fact, doesn't even play on the instrumental. And the two talk about pushing each other and finding new musical and vocal approaches through that method. The backup musicians are Toronto's Carpet Frogs, the band that's been backing up B & C on their live dates. Just as fun is the packaging -- a booklet with a short essay by Randy and Burton notes on each song. Better still is the delux edition, with a bonus DVD containing a 20-minute interview with the pair just a day after recording and mixing was finished. Anyway, just having B & C in a recording studio together is notable. That the result is so much fun is fantastic.