Grabbing you immediately, Cape Breton’s Joseph Bridge’s opening track ‘Brenda and the Breadheads’ has break downs reminiscent of Blue Rodeo pasted nicely to up-beat guitar driven riffs that are guaranteed to get any butt or two wiggling; Marvin’s Sanitarium is an epic 16 song ride through the country side into the darkness of the city.
Colourful lead guitars and a raunchy blues overtone mixed with a floating rock pop upbeat melody’s ending on nicely placed lead guitar outro, don’t forget the string section making this perfect for a radio hit. Easing into song two a nice acoustic track, Joseph gets right back to rocking East Coast style with a beer slamming foot stompin’ good time with ‘Phyllis the Parking Meter Lady’ which can be mistaken for a smash Irish/U.K single.
Fast forward to the ‘Mind’s Eye’: in my opinion a cool vibe towards the Devil went down to Georgia, captivating leads and fiddle playing, two of my favourite things. Track 10 ‘Landmines’ is a stand out for me, housing classic rock harmonies and mixed well with Joseph’s downhome acoustic Celtic style.
‘Triangle Clouds’ is another standout track, mixing the true acoustic/Celtic Rock with great story telling that takes you on an unexpected psychedelic journey of fiery lead guitar shredding, but not too far, Joseph brings you back with an almost Beatles esq’ tune, ‘Marvin Penn’.
Beginning to round out the album ‘Winter Blues’ lets you close your eyes and picture the snow falling from above in a retrospective start to the end of this record followed by ‘Goodbye’ the let go song you need at the end of any emotional album. Ending on ‘Irelands Dream’ an expressive, aggressive instrumental that lets the fiddle do the talking and walk you through the out door to the next pub down the road.
It’s a long haul – being all of sixteen songs long and some songs sharing similarities in sound and structure – but isn’t that the great idea behind Celtic rock songs, big lasting chords, verse chorus verse out? I’ll let you decide. For fans of Stan Rogers to Dropkick Murphys don’t miss any chance to catch Joseph Bridge at your local watering hole.