Riverdogs always reminds me of steel towns. The summer I first acquired this CD I was driving a mail truck (yes, I was driving a one ton mail truck) from post office to post office in north-western Pennsylvania (from New Castle to about an hour from Pittsburgh.) Shuttered steel mills as far as the eye could see. It made a perfect soundtrack for wending my way through the silent mills of Ellwood City because it just has the right sound. A kind of hard working, hard driving, hard rock beat.

Whisper
Powerful song of desperation, ideal to the rust belt scenery. The song writing is deeper than par, telling the stories of 2 people, a man who has worked his whole life to support 5 children and wants to catch a break when he dies and a woman who has lost 2 husbands and is pregnant.

Toy Soldier
This is probably my favorite song. I hadn’t intended to buy this tape until I found myself going through my route singing "there’s a hole in my pocket / where my only hope of change keeps falling through / and scatters at my feel just like the rest of my life." This is clever and enigmatic, very appealing to the English major on holiday and I wasn’t even remembering the "breaking like a china doll" part. The music moves from a very thin, low key back drop to a ground swell that carries the listener along. It was the hit off this record.

Big House
"I am bound to you like steel and rust." Hmm? Hmm? The singing carries a desperate tone and the song features a nice (short) guitar solo in the middle. The whole song is a vow of protection. Gee, here we are 3 songs in and no song about sex. What are they trying to do, break the mold?

Holy War
Antiwar song. Written before the Gulf thing too. "Words turn to ashes, promises to dust / And we die for God or love or lust / Why dream a dream / You can burn one down / Watch it dying on broken ground // Someday soon, this will all be yours / The killing feeling and the Holy War." I have to equate this to the "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" from the first Jurassic Park movie. A cliché taken and turned sideways. Sadly, in the Middle East and Northern Ireland someday soon is now, and probably the future too.

Baby Blue
A love song to a child. I kid you not. Yes, it’s a hard rock album. Yea, Vivian Campbell is currently a member of Def Leppard. What about it? This is a love song to a child. "Baby blue / I cried for you / Now you don’t have to / Baby blue / Can you understand / A little boy / Will be a man."

I Believe
This song strikes me as Riverdogs effort to write a hit and it comes out as a Riverdogs song. Just a hair too smart for general popularity. And a hair too critical of America (which doesn’t bother me at all.) "All the streets are paved with gold / Only on the good side of town." A little bitter? A little accurate?

Water From the Moon
Wait a minute, this one isn’t about sex either. It’s not even about a relationship gone bad. It is about a dysfunctional relationship, but the poor shmuck seems to be trapped in it. The guitar work here is just phenomenal

Rain, Rain
We get the grinding guitar we expect here. And the drumming is driving and powerful. Oh and is it depressing. "There’s a bullet / In my daddy’s hunting gun / I will make it sing / I swear it’s the closest thing to heaven / I will ever see / When my own land covers me."

Spooky
"Spooky" joins a long tradition of Celtic war-is-bad songs, the most recognizable of which if "Johnny Comes Marching Home (Hurrah Hurrah)" I hate to pop any patriotic bubbles you might have, but in the pre-Civil War version Johnny came home from Ceylon an eyeless, boneless, chicken less egg. Our man in "Spooky" doesn’t come home much better off.

America
Wait a minute, this is the last song. Where was the song about sex? What’s going on here? This one is a realistic painting of the land of opportunity through the eyes of an immigrant. And, yes, steel is mentioned. It was a theme I guess.

Heck yea, it’s depressing. Have you driven through block after block of shuttered steel mills? Tres, tres depressing. And yet, it’s not. Somehow, there's an element of hope, it’s just realistic. You might want to call it blues metal, but then you’d have to remember that Rob Lamothe is from Canada, to anyone with a pensive personality in the first place, all those long cold winters are not going to be uplifting. And Vivian Campbell is Scottish and how could you help being depressed when you live on a rock where, if it’s not raining now, it will be soon. (This is when all the Canadians and Scots on Epinions decide I’m evil. Go on, you know you want to.) It’s a good album for those with a penchant for Great White or even Springsteen, and probably wouldn’t be a bad thing to expose to those who think Nirvana was the end all be all. (Wow, somebody was depressed and clever before Kurt?)

(I'm feisty tonight.)


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving