Adam Hood - Different Groove
Adam HoodDifferent GrooveLITTLE DOG LDCD200727
****Produced by Pete Anderson [Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens, Roy Orbison, Sara Evans, k.d lang etc], young Alabama-born guitarist, singer-songwriter debutante Adam Hood pours helpings of southern fare, country honk-tonk, rock, some soul and a sprinkling of contagious Cajun over this tastefully percolated CD.Vying between high octave road song 22 Days Too Long to the peaceful, Ryan Adams-esque Shelly—where, Hood places some perfectly toned vocals to the pleading lyrics. Aided by swirling keyboards, sweet guitar licks and piano the song makes a huge impact. Never Comes Easy is a teen-based reflective ode, telling of how he cut his teeth at small time bars and changes in life style, while the lazy Cars, Trucks And Me does little for me. Lacking the addictive beat of Different Groove title track.
A song that hauls the album back on track after three songs that lacked in anything remotely up to the killer grooves of his best work, good as the 1970s soul-leaning Fool Of An Honest Man might be I feel the running order at that stage needed an injection of something different! As the album title-track suggests, the album has just that, pumping up the energy level and him spitting out cool lyrics [I sat on the front porch/my guitar in my hand/played the same old chord over and over again] the guitar work/rhythm, in particular on Different Groove, becomes addictive and easy on the ear from an early stage. Not least the smartly picked eclectic guitar [listen out for some choppy acoustic guitar too] tinkling piano and a relentless beat that falls into place, effortlessly.
Mellow as they come is Late Night Diner; where, crying steel guitar fuels a song telling of a less than inviting meeting place for pretty girls on Fridays to hang around. Yet the lady two seats over [overcome with heartache] is sitting all alone and, the perfect old-fashioned recipe for a country tear-jerker unfolds—vintage fashion.
Lifting the mood Hood breezes along the tracks with the Cajun-ish Varnado, where he ventures below the Mississippi line—the mood superbly captured through the accordion of Michael Murphy and mandolin of Anderson. Both of whom lend much to ensure Hood’s full scale debut is a commendable affair and this won’t be the last we hear from this hugely talented young man. MH