Mike Ross is an artist who wears his influences on his sleeve. The Allman Brothers, The Black Crowes and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac can all be heard in his work. Great catchy guitar riffs, hooks and melodies mixed with harmonic middle eight sections and a versatile voice that suited to rock, blues and soul. These combine to make his latest release ‘The Clovis Limit Pt. 2’ a record that’s worth checking out.
Anyone who is familiar with Ross’s work will instantly recognise his guitar playing on the album, ranging from fuzz-drenched gritty guitars one minute and spine-tingling notes played from the heart the next.
The opening track ‘Thanks A Lot’ catapults the listener headfirst into the album with a tune drenched in groove, layered guitar parts, and clever time changes, while ‘None Of Your Business’ has more of a bump and grind blues feel to it with a soulful interlude.
‘Hammer’, ‘Loser’ and the instrumental ‘Unforgiven’ steer the album into classic melodic Americana or country-rock territory that pays homage to bands such as The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The brooding version of ‘Levithian’ included on the album owes more to the influence of Led Zeppelin than the original acoustic track that appeared on RHR’s ‘Mahogany Drift’.
As with all great blues songs, ‘The Only Place You Take Me Is Down’ is a classic tale of bad love that’s replete with searing slide guitar and underpinned with some frantic keyboard work. Continuing the theme, ‘Don’t Say A Word’ is a funky high octane tune that gets both feet stomping along.
If you like your guitars raw but never overplayed, your tunes honest and catchy with a dash of Northern Soul, then ‘The Clovis Limit Pt. 2’ is your go-to album of 2020.