Eric Ambel: Knucklehead
Lakeside Lounge Records
2004
www.ericambel.com
My first exposure to Eric Ambel came quite by accident. Ex-Georgia Satellite Dan Baird was in town for a show in support of his solo album Buffalo Nickel, and off I went, to check out Dan and crew at the Burke Lakefront Airport here in Cleveland, where they were opening for John Kay & Steppenwolf at the local rib cook-off. I guess I expected a set of solo stuff from Dan and some choice Sats numbers, and what I got instead, was a bunch of guys on stage like a glorified bar band, trading off lead vocals from song to song.
One of those guys, was guitar player Eric Ambel, who impressed me on that day with his tune "Song For The Walls", which I would later dig up on his newly reissued solo release Loud & Lonesome. Ambel, was this odd, almost rock and roll Dan Akroyd looking type, just rockin' away with the rest of the band.
That band of course, would come to be known as the Yayhoos, and I acquired as much of Ambel's work as I could, and waited patiently until 2001, when the shelved Yayhoos opus Fear Not The Obvious, was finally released.
Now, in 2004, we get the first new Eric Ambel album in nearly a decade with the release of Knucklehead on Ambel's own label, Lakeside Lounge Records.
I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about Knucklehead, being a 15 track collection of rarities and unreleased stuff. My last experience with that type of comp came with the acquisition of Dan Baird's recent release Out Of Mothballs, which suffered from tracks that were sourced from sources of varying quality, giving the overall album an uneven feel. I'm all for "cleaning out the vaults", but it can sometimes make for a tough task creating an end product that is enjoyable from start to finish.
You'll find no such problems with Knucklehead. Great attention has been given to making this compilation sound beyond good, and in the end, it is an album that when cranked up loud, passes the crucial "car stereo" test drive.
Moreso then on any of Ambel's previous solo work, Knucklehead gives you a real appreciation for the many talents of Eric Ambel, both instrumentally, and from a songwriting standpoint. Ambel has an unmistakable guitar tone that shines throughout this album, and you really get to dig on how much of a great rock and roll guitar player Ambel is, and it is a crucial component that keeps me coming back every time the Yayhoos hit town - Ambel it seems, always has at least one more trick up his sleeve.
Article comments
1 - ClubhouseCancer
I absolutely love the Yayhoos, who are bar-rock at its grinning, stupid best. Guitars guitars guitars. Loud. Four guys who have done this before.
Eric seems to turn up at every other good rock show on the Lower East Side. He's always welcome.
Your post sent me to the Yayhoos web page, where I see that joyfully there will be a new album. Amazing news!
But I seem to remember a very drunken, very loud "farewell" show in 2002....
Thanks for the heads-up. I'm ordering the new Eric right now.
The Yayhoos' amps all go to 11.
2 - Matt Wardlaw
yeah -
I am lucky to have a friend that is pretty close with Ambel (Eric produced a couple of his albums), so I stay pretty up on all things Yayhoos and Ambel.
The Yayhoos absolutely did not break up:-) I saw them do a show late last year, and they were road testing tunes from Dan's Out Of Mothballs release, as well as some of Eric's "new" tunes that have now found their way to Knucklehead. New Yayhoos album has been talked about and in the works for some time now, and it looks like for all of the "recording" talk, they finally got their shit together and got in the studio and got it done!
Further Yayhoos info - they were talking at one point in 2002/2003 about putting out a live album, and even recorded two nights in NYC.
You'll absolutely enjoy Knucklehead. It's a slam dunk in the same vein of the Yayhoos CD - just great from top to bottom.
got a lot of favorite Yayhoos moments - their live covers of Love Train and Roam were cool, but one of the coolest things I saw them do was a scorching 12 minute cover of Down By The River by Neil Young at one of the past few Cleveland shows....
Thanks for the comments!