CONCERT REVIEW

COLLECTIVE SOUL, GIN BLOSSOMS

MGM, CLEVELAND, 6-11-2019

By R.M. Engelman

I didn’t take long to establish that Collective Soul still really rocks, and still carries a great following.  The crowd packed in with assorted vintage to recent CS T-shirts, and basically stood and sang along start to finish. They’re celebrating their 25th Anniversary with their Now’s The Time tour promoting their new upcoming album Blood.  

Founding frontman Ed Roland jumped between guitar and piano, commanding the entire stage like it was day one. 

On the closing song Run, Ed continued playing a 12-string (that miraculously stayed in tune throughout) while the rest of the band walked to center stage with him while singing the song along with the crowd. 

One by one they walked off the stage, while he continued to play the end of the song offstage with the audience supplying the vocals. 

My favorite drummer Johnny Rabb and bassist Will Turpin held down the rhythm section while lead guitarist Jesse Triplett and guitarist Dean Roland were right on the money.  

The group ran through the hits including Shine, Gel, December, The World I Know, Precious Declaration, and Heavy.  Also included were cuts off the new album, Now’s The Time, Over Me, Right As Rain, and Observation Of Thoughts.  

Gin Blossoms have established their own sound which successfully blends various styles.  In listening to them, at some points they remind you of various acts including Chris Isaac and Blue October.

They played their hits including Follow You Down, Hey Jealousy, Found Out About You, Till I Hear It From You.  Later lead singer Robin Wilson joined CS onstage for a rendition of R.E.M.’s The One I Love.  

Some nostalgia and a lot of fun.  Extremely worth going to see when they come around your neck of the woods!  

CD REVIEW

BLOOD, COLLECTIVE SOUL

By R.M. Engelman

The band is on the road with their Now’s The Time tour celebrating their 25th Anniversary while promoting their new release Blood.  Frontman and keyboards/guitarist Ed Roland is joined by brother Dean on guitars, bassist Will Turpin, lead guitarist Jesse Triplett, and drummer Johnny Rabb.  The album cover depicts what I determine to be referring to as new blood.  

Now’s The Time is a nice heavier song relying on the solid guitar riffs. Over Me is also led by the guitar playing.  Right As Rain is a great medium tempo song with some nice slide guitar work. Them Blues is a nice bouncy piano based tune with some nice backing vocal arrangements.  Good Place To Start relays Ed’s thoughts on life and how to cope.  Observation Of Thoughts has an anthem type quality with some nice piano and guitar work.  Changed is a self-confessional piano ballad nicely accented by strings.  Big Sky is another nice slowed down piece.  Porch Swing is an acoustic guitar and organ led offering.  

The mixing, arrangements, and background vocal use are maximized here.  The most noticible thing is that a great portion of the songs are mainly first structured around Ed’s lyrics and then Will and Dean’s guitar work.  Ed’s strong vocals play well over the top of everything.  The rythym section of Johnny and Will “Gel” (pardon the pun) nicely together to balance out the sound.  The group best known for their earlier hits Shine, Gel, December, The World I Know, Precious Declaration, and Heavy delivers some familiar sounding as well as a lot of fresh sounding material.  When you listen to CS you hear a lot of nuances that became influences, adopted by bands that followed them.  

Catch them when they play your area.  I’ve seen them do most of the new songs live, and together with their back catalogue, it’s a lot of fun.