Ed Alleyne-Johnson
Reflections
Review by Greg Olma
One of the upsides of being in the midst of the demise of the brick and mortar record store is the ability to search through iTunes to find unique covers of your favorite artist’s songs. Now granted, there is plenty of substandard cannon fodder out there in terms of badly done covers, but every now and then you can run across a real treasure of a song. Rarer still is the entire album of cover songs done so well and uniquely, that each track is a familiar yet new experience to listen to. Such is the treasure I stumbled across while perusing the virtual aisles of iTunes and the one you will find by listening to Reflections, the latest album from electric violinist Ed Alleyne-Johnson.
This seventh album from Ed Alleyne-Johnson, his second one made up of cover songs, finds the violinist delving into the 1970’s for a selection of classic rock songs played in his unique style on his handmade electric violin. The choice of songs he takes on runs from the obvious hit (“Freebird”) to the deeper cuts (“Child in Time” and “Parisienne Walkways”) to the downright daring (“Shine on You Crazy Diamond”). Whereas many cover songs these days are cheap cash-in’s by record labels to get their artists names out there, the thing you will find throughout your listen to this album is while these are well known songs from the classic rock era, Alleyne-Johnson’s emotion filled playing shows his love and respect for the music and artists who created these songs. This is no cash-in album.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2007 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.
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