George Lynch & Jeff Pilson – Heavy Hitters
(Cleopatra Records – 2020)
The two former guitarists of Dokken have got together again as a musical uit but instead of us being presented with an original album, we instead are treated with a covers album.
Much of the material is sung by Jeff Pilson and what an impressive voice he has too – massively underrated and could wipe the floor on many out there. There are a few guests appearing here pushing their own vocal pipes, moat notably, Marq Torien of The Bulletboys wailing up the Rufus & Chaka Khan funk of 'You Got The Love' or New Zealand's Wil Martin absolutely nailing the Simon Le Bon vocals part of 'Ordinary World' by Duran Duran of course – in fact he sounds way better and those solos from George and Jeff are simply off the f*ck*ng chain!
Good to hear 'Champagne Supernova' sung properly for a change unlike that Liam Gallagher fronted abortion and again – what a cracking solo in there too or a ballsy version of Madonna's 'Music' with that grinding cool as hell bassline in there – now that's groove sex right there which the same can be said for their take of 'Nowhere To Run' by Martha & The Vandellas and again the guitar solo is a total trip and a half where the sound drops. Boy you can tell that's Brian Tichy on drums – such a slammer to say the least and drivingly effective.
The version of 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' again by far usurps the original too - the original by REM of course and 'Lucille' kicks some serious ass too on this spectacular live version of the Little Richard song!
8.5/10
By Glenn Milligan