Key Frances
author: Marc Truchon
I am amzed this guy isnt top of the charts yet blending old and new sounds to a new high A MUST OWN !!!!! as the other 3 of his
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This guy has presence, tone, psychedelic blues, passion raw gut emotion....
author: Pete Feenstra Real Music Live
and weighs in like a latter day heavy duty Steve Miller who blisses out like Bob Weir, and adds a psychedelic undertow like Love's Aurther Lee. Key has teamed up like many Austin based muso's before him with the Double Trouble rhythym section. He's also added a little New Orleans courtesy of an association with producer Daniel Lanios.
Listen only to the sublime version of "Season of the Witch", on which both Dr. John and Terry Reid, via Donovan are turned inside out, and given a guitar led psychedelic intensity that takes your breath away.
This guy eats and breathes feel, blood curdling licks, and takes no prisoners along the way. On "Bubba's Truck" he soars high on his slide over an incessant funky back beat. On "Pagan Love Song", he's in Jim Morrison mode, and hey, Why not? This album rewrites the blues manual, tears it up and walks off with the very best elements into another stratosphere.
While resident in Austin, Key apparently used to play an in between set jam, sandwiched twist Chris Duarts and Ian Moore. I venture his material is way ahead of even contemporaries of their stature. This is music for the new age, if this sounds pretenious, just tune in, drop out, and feel those psychedelic blues!
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One helpful hint, Play It Loud!
author: Al Lovelock/ Thirsty Ear Magazine
Like Cosmic Garage, Key's previous cd, Tiny Sparkles is a sweet collection of Hendrixesque, Robin Troweristic excursions.
Key's own tunes are his strong point. Key spins fantastic tales of UFOs, evokes the aid of an old Indian warrier, and celebrates and laments the loves he has known.
There are two major standouts here: "Bubba's Truck" is
pure down to earth fun, a tongue-in-cheek portrait of a 350-pound good ol' truck drivin' boy built around a funky guitar hook. At the other end of the spectrum lies "Best Intentions" in which the singer recalls a lying girlfriend, a father who has nearly worked himself to death for some unnamed company, and his own strange life:
"My father, he had the best intentions/My father had a story to tell/My father, learned to pause on his journey/Find four leaf clovers, pitch pennies into the wishing well."
...the sound never gets boring.
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