CD REVIEW: BACK IN BLUE – A Blues Tribute To AC/DC

CD REVIEW: BACK IN BLUE – A Blues Tribute To AC/DC
Rhythm Section
19 July, 2016
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

I’ve lost count of the amount of interviews I’ve done where my interviewee has cited AC/DC as the link between the blues and rock. “[When] you get into hard rock and heavy metal and stuff, there’s really no blues licks anymore,” Rival Sons drummer Mikey Miley told me recently.

As if to prove that assertion, here’s Back In Blue, an Aussie tribute project assembled by Queensland muso Darren Griffis to re-interpret the entire Back In Black album whilst raising awareness and funds to help those suffering from depression.

To reimagine the second-biggest selling album of all time – the biggest selling rock n’ roll album ever – as a blues record is a dicey proposition that could fall in a heap very easily… we all know the songs, cripes, we can all pretty much sing every solo!

We may know the songs back to front, but it’s highly unlikely we’ve heard them like this before. Griffis has managed to assemble a cast of talented individuals who find the essence of the blues inside each track and bring that to the fore, and it’s amazing how RIGHT the songs sound when given the full blues treatment.

Citing favourites is redundant: this all killer, no filler track listing gets the all killer line-up and performances that it deserves, from Jane Michele’s raunchy vocal on Hells Bells, Gail Page owning What Do You Do For Money Honey, Marshall Okell’s raw and brazen reinvention of Giving The Dog A Bone complete with rap from Triple Nip, Eightball Aitken’s You Shook Me All Night Long, Griffis’s own take on Shake A Leg, and Lloyd Speigel’s masterful Rock & Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.

A great reinvention of a great album, for a great cause. It’s a no-brainer, really.

Category: CD Reviews