1116. Adrian Smith & Richie Kotzen / Smith/Kotzen. 2021. 3.5/5

By all accounts, Richie Kotzen and Adrian Smith have been friends for some years, and have often spoken about doing some sort of project together. And all it took for it to happen was a worldwide pandemic that halted all live tours and essentially anything to do with people congregating together any time soon, for it to happen. Now, blues and blues rock are not at the top of my listening list. Obviously, many heavy metal and hard rock bands have had blues influences interwoven through their songs and albums over the last 50 years. A lot of early AC/DC songs is the best example of this. And being a great Gary Moore fan there was a lot of blues to listen to in his final twenty years, and at least his first two blues-only albums are still great to listen to. And Jeff Healey was another blues artist who I admired greatly, especially for his debut album.

So, coming into this album, once you know that the basis of all the songs is blues rock, then you can appreciate it for what it is and not for what you might have been hoping for. And let’s face it, Richie Kotzen’s greatest claim to fame is as a riffing blues hard rock guitarist. And while Adrian Smith may have spent the majority of his career in one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time, he has shown a penchant for various styles of music outside of his Maiden hours, with the soft rock project ASaP album Silver and Gold, the differing hard rock project Psycho Motel albums State of Mind and Welcome to the World and the frenzied extreme project Primal Rock Rebellion album Awoken Broken. So, when the first teaser single was released, entitled “Take My Chances,” I always knew that we were not going to be getting a Bruce Dickinson's The Chemical Wedding or Paul Stanley’s Live to Win.
The reason we all came to the album was for the guitars, and in that respect there is no disappointment. Both men have shown themselves throughout their careers to be terrific guitarists, and they deliver fantastically throughout. Even when, in my humble opinion, a song is a little on the over-zealous or predictable side – yes, you can read ‘boring’ in there if you like and you wouldn’t be far off the mark – that is not the case with the traded guitar solo breaks. They are the highlight of each song and of the album overall. I don’t even think there is any element of one-upmanship going on. I just think they both genuinely enjoyed the challenge of playing with each other, and rather than try and outdo each other they played solos that complemented each other, and in a project like this, that must be a difficult thing to do at times. And this is best shown on the songs that have that little bit more momentum than the others.

Both Smith and Kotzen share all the duties between themselves throughout the album - guitars, bass, vocals, composing and production. No mean feat, but something that no doubt made writing and recording during a pandemic an easier and necessary thing to do. Kotzen also plays drums on five tracks and his touring partner Tal Bergman, Richie’s longstanding friend and touring partner, plays drums on the songs "You Don’t Know Me", "I Wanna Stay" and "'Til Tomorrow". The album also features a special guest performance from Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain on "Solar Fire", which may have something to do with me thinking it is the best overall song on the album.

Blues rock has always been something that I can listen to, but probably choose not to on most occasions when it comes to looking for an album to listen to. And that doesn’t preclude the albums and artists I mentioned at the top of the episode. At work, having this album on has been great. It blends into the background and is really enjoyable when it comes to that office environment. However, I do not mind admitting that when I get home, I want something a bit more aggressive, a bit heavier, and bit more fist pumping. And while there will always be times in that environment that it will be good to put on, I fear that won’t be the case on a regular basis. For those that are fans of the genre, I think you will find this is an excellent album full of great guitar highlights. Richie is the main vocalist and is as good as ever, and Adrian’s additions along the way are also enjoyable. Some of the songs for me extend longer than they need to, or feel they need to at least. This isn’t what you would classify as an ‘easy listening’ album, but it is an album that in the right mood will slip comfortably into the background and enhance whatever it is you are doing. The skills of these two gentlemen are not in doubt, and by bringing them together in this project they have again shown their brilliant skills and musical versatility, and it is more than worth your while in giving it a listen.

Rating: "Well, they told me in school not to mess with the rules" 3.5/5