|
The Kendall Wall Band was formed by previous Downchild Blues Band Alumni Gary Kendall and Cash Hall and was a hugely popular band in the Toronto area during the late 80's and early 90's. The Kendall Wall Band was also the house band for Toronto's Black Swan Tavern, and through that gig they got the great opportunity to play with many blues legends, such as, "A.C. Reed, Pinetop Perkins, Eddy Clearwater, Tinsley Ellis, Little Willie Littlefield, Chubby Carrier, Bernard Allison, Eddie C. Campbell, Lefty Dizz, Eddie "Clean Head" Vinson, and Eddie Shaw ", to name a few. Multi blues award winner Gary Kendall, has been a working musician since the 60's, and has been the booking agent for Toronto's famed The Silver Dollar Room, since 1994. In 1995, he rejoined the Downchild and has continued with them ever since, while also leading his own band, The Gary Kendall Band. According to the bands Promo website, "Cash Wall got out of the music business when he left The Kendall Wall Band in 1993. He was employed by Canada Post until 1995 when he returned to his hometown of Springfield, Missouri. Although no longer in music he used his considerable artistic talent by working at a number of arts related jobs until finally taking a position at Bass Pro Shops in their stain glass division. He followed this career until his health failed in 2008. Cash Wall lost his battle with cancer in Feb, 2009 ". The first attempt to get "The Way We Was" out the door took place in late '87 early '88, but due a lack of funding and production inexperience the project was never really completed to anyones satisfaction, until in 2012, when Gary Kendall enlisted L. Stu Young, "one of the most respected recording engineers in the world ", to bring the previous vision of their recording to it masterful completion. Although recorded over 25 years ago, "The Way We Was" truly feels like it was recorded just yesterday, as the music on this album comes across with a wonderful fresh and super relevant feel, totally fitting into todays Blues Groove and kind of putting some of the other stuff out their to shame, but then again, a lot of the older stuff does that. A fine example of it's relevance is captured brilliantly with Track 7 "I Don't Know (What This World's Coming To)". "The Way We Was" consists of 10 very entertaining Tracks of which 6 are originals, with Cash Wall and Gary Kendall, writing two each and co-writing one, and Richard Smyth writing one. For the covers, they chose a nice mix of songs which included the Ike Turner/Ralph Bass "Just One More Time", Rick Estrin's "Poor Tarzan", and Gene “Daddy G” Barge's "I Don't Know (What This World's Coming To)". In addition to Gary Kendall (Lead Vocals/Bass), the rest of the band included Cash Wall (Lead Vocals/Drums), Jeff Baker (Lead Vocals/Harmonica), Richard Smyth (Guitar), Teddy Leonard (Guitar), and Martin Alex Aucoin (Piano/Organ). Additional musicians, on one Track each, included Larry Bodner (Tenor Sax) and Duncan McBain (Drums). For a couple of favorites on "The Way We Was", for which by the way, was not an easy task, I chose the opener Ike Turner's "Just One More Time", and Track 9, Bobby Miller's "If Walls Could Talk". "Just One More Time", is a great sounding rockabilly style tune. This beauty features some great Piano work from Martin Alex Aucoin along with some strong Tenor Sax courtesy of Larry Bodner. Cash Wall takes the Lead Vocal role, while Teddy Leonard wails on Guitar. "If Walls Could Talk" caught my attention right away with the great Harp work courtesy of Jeff Baker. Richard Smyth takes the Guitar role on this Track and does an awesome job of it. Other Tracks which could have easily made my two favorites were Rick Estrin's Conga Drum driven, "Poor Tarzan", and the Downchild stylin' "All Dressed Up". All in all, I found "The Way We Was" to be a thoroughly entertaining album, not at all hampered by the fact the music came from a different era. It certainly beats listening to a lot of the stuff out their nowadays. "The Way We Was" had no problem, at all, showing me why The Kendall Wall Band, was so hugely popular, back in it's day. As a side note, I urge readers of this review to take a few moments and check out The Kendall Wall Band website, which has a lot of interesting details concerning the band and the making of this album, including a page called "Where Are They Now". http://www.kendallwallband.com/ Review by John Vermilyea (Blues Underground Network)
Listen To Samples Here... http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thekendallwallband |
The Kendall Wall Band's new release, "The Way We Was", marks the 2nd recent album I have received for which there was a significant period between when it was recorded and when it was finally released, with the other one being Tail Dragger's "Stop Lyin'", which was released 30 years after it was first recorded. "The Way We Was" was not quite that long, with being recorded 25 years ago, but the result is still the same, and that is, that the wait was sure worth it.