This is Cheap Wine’s fifth album, and as I loved the last so much it was a welcome surprise when it dropped through the letterbox courtesy of Stone Premonitions. This Italian four-piece play rock music as it should be played – loud and snotty, with riffs and solos aplenty and a total disregard for the niceties of fancy production techniques. From the brilliant cover art to the great songs, this whole package just cries out to be heard, but I am just afraid that because they hail from the continent this group will be overlooked by everyone but the few lucky fans in the know. It has been three years since their last album ‘Moving’, but the band sound as good as ever, and with lyrics in English and a distinctly American rock sound they should really appeal to a very wide audience. Check out Exploding Underground or Kenny Bring Me Down to hear some superb hard rock, or Nothing Left To Say for a Dylan-influenced ballad. For the title track they pull out all the stops, from Michele Diamantini’s feedback-drenched solo to the riff that holds the whole song together - it sums up the band in one song. Jugglers And Suckers is good old fashioned rock and roll, hard and heavy with the added bonus of an organ solo. Evil Ghost winds thing down with a ballad, but as it is a Cheap Wine ballad they use the last six minutes of this nine minute epic as a springboard for one of Diamantini’s best solos, ending this fine album on a high. It is good to know that there are still bands out there that cherish the classic rock sound, and Cheap Wine are one of them. Check out their website at www.cheapwine.net for more info (much of it in Italian, I am afraid, but there are some English snippets) and samples from their five albums.
[ Peter Jolly ]
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7 reasons to like Cheap Wine:

1. The great cartoon artwork on their CD.

2. The great My Space site with 4 songs from the album and extracts from ‘You Tube’.

3. Their list of influences includes Neil Young (Comes out particularly on the grungy title track)

4. Their list of influences includes Bob Dylan (Comes out particularly on the acoustic ballad- guitar, piano, organ, harmonica- Nothing Left To Say) This is not the only acoustic track- this band does not go just for power- witness the stunning finale ‘Evil Ghost’!

5. Their list of influences shows, for a young band, they’ve done a lot of listening and know their history. (The list includes various rock ‘n’ roll greats, jazz and blues legends and Billie Holliday!) ‘Time for Action’ adds vintage AC/DC to their list!

6. The power and majesty of ‘Naked Kings’ (All 6:26 of it) shows a pedigree dating back to The Allman Brothers and The Rolling Stones. It’s not the longest song and the only one that brings back memories of The Allmans, especially the slide guitar- that honour goes to ‘Evil Ghost’ (9:40)

7. The striking musicianship right throughout the band- listen to the rhythm section on songs like ‘Kenny Bring Me Down’. Cheap Wine are one red hot Italian band!

(‘Freak Show’ is available through I Tunes, CD Baby and by visiting www.myspace.com/cheapwinenet or www.cheapwine.net)

Oh, and I forgot to mention there is also a message in their music!
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Freak Show is great. My favorite of Cheap Wine CDs yet. Really energetic but with a really good variety of sounds and styles. Congratulations to the band! It's good to keep getting better, that's the idea, isn't it?!
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