Album Notes

\'Hold Fast\' is Tom McMeekan/s first solo CD. Hard to believe the man responsible for so much great music for so many years hasn\'t done this before. I first saw Tom when he was the lead guitarist of the Quirks, a band that dominated rock in Idaho in the mid-60\'s, then in Faith which morphed into the legendary Northwest group Notary Sojac. That band played all original material combining elements of rock, country, jazz, blues, and swing. With them, Tom opened for Frank Zappa, the Velvet Underground, and the Grateful Dead, among others. Later, he was part of renowned producer Kim Fowley\'s studio band, and more recently, a member of Boise-based Red & Gray.
\'Hold Fast\' takes a lifetime of these influences, chops them up, sautés them at high heat, and serves them up in a fiery rock \'n\' roll stew. This is great guitar rock. Listen to the end of Tom\'s slide guitar solo on the opening track \"Don\'t Let a Good Man Down.\" He puts a long, slow slide to the higher reaches of the strings that just tickles the ear. Listen to \"I\'m Gonna Run\" where the guitars drive the rhythm like some lost Stax Records track for Wilson Pickett. Listen to \"The County Line,\" Tom\'s up-tempo country romp with the guitar-bomb ending, or \"Wait,\" a reggae-based reflection on dreams deferred. Don\'t miss \"Strange Beauty,\" which takes a Dire Straits-like riff and adds a huge dose of swamp rock right in line with the dark-side lyrics. Don\'t miss the great Little-Feat like slide work on \"The Farm.\" And, don\'t miss Kim Lawrence\'s gorgeous harmony singing with Tom on the sweet ballads \"You\'re Beautiful\" and \"April.\"
But the biggest Don\'t-Miss is \"Money\'s Talkin\',\" a rocking angry protest of the government\'s response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. \"Don\'t hang a name on me, don\'t call me a refugee.\" Powerful song, performance and vocal.
The CD finishes with hope and optimism with the rocking \"On the Inside,\" about being comfortable in your own skin, \"The Only One\" featuring one of Tom\'s best vocals in a touching imagining that love and life extend beyond this lifetime, and the I-Have-A-Dream \"We\" with its urging \"No more fighting.\"
\'Hold Fast\' is great rock \'n\' roll with no holds barred, held fast, and played with passion. Don\'t miss it. --Jim Gratton, Seattle, WA