Riverdogs

Riverdogs – California (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:41 minutes | 587 MB | Genre: Rock, Classic Rock, Hard Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Frontiers Music s.r.l

The self titled debut album from Riverdogs was criminally overlooked. Released in 1990, it often makes lists of “albums you might not have heard of but should own”. Yes, I made that list up, but you get the picture. Musical climates were a-changing as grunge was beginning to take shape and suffocate hair metal. Riverdogs were neither. The band, featuring renowned guitarist Vivian Campbell, played a soulful brand of blues rock that wouldn’t sound out of place now, but back then, the genre wasn’t as popular to the mass market. Anyway, Campbell soon joined Def Leppard, and Riverdogs was put on the back burner. Campbell can play the guitar, that’s for sure. His work with Sweet Savage and, of course, Dio proved this. Joining Def Leppard gave him a bigger stage to play on, but limited his playing. No need for shredding or long solos in Leppard. When he formed the Dio side-project, Last In Line, it reminded audiences of exactly how good a player Campbell is. Watching him on stage, playing the songs that first made him famous, it was obvious how much he missed letting fly. So, alongside his stints with Def Leppard and Last In Line, Campbell has also got Riverdogs back together for a brand new studio album, the first in six years. Truthfully, I doubt that you’ll hear one musician having as much fun on an album as Campbell is having on ‘California’. With no disrespect intended at all to his day job in Leppard, this is the sound of a guitarist breaking free of his shackles.

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