Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA The Knights - Tiempos Malos
 | Rich Stewart's Knights have a long lineage, with roots in the sixties. This album of intentionally easy listening rock instrumentals is very good. While it won't rock your world like Dick Dale might, it will certainly bring more sunlight to it. Tiempos Malos is loaded with very easy to like, often beautiful rock combo instros! |
Picks: Love Hurts, Sleep Walk, Walk Right Back, My Way, Bulldog, Tiempos Malos (Hard Times), Yellow Bird, Walk Don't Run, Too, Afterglow, Soul Searching
Track by Track Review
Rock (Instrumental)
This venerable FM standard gets a fresh face on it via lovely island surf guitar and an easy beat. "Love Hurts" is a fine track for a lazy afternoon or lonely night alone. Sad, rainy, yet hoping for a better day ahead. Very nice!
Rock (Instrumental)
The sweetness of the playing is essential to the arrangement of Santo and Johnny's "Sleep Walk." Few guitarists carry this song off without a lap steel. Very pleasant!
Rock (Instrumental)
A jazzy surf whammy interprets Sonny Curtis' "Walk Right Back" in a most artful and easy way. The lightness and delicacy of the guitar is perfectly set atop a gentle rock backtrack.
Rock (Instrumental)
Shimmering tremolo and gentle drums reinvent "My Way" as if it is something completely new. It's as distant from the original by Claude Francois or the Frank Sinatra hit as The Sex Pistols' version, but in the opposite direction of course. Very pretty.
Rock (Instrumental)
It always seems to me that The Fireballs' music is best interpreted by regional artists. It's certain from listening that The Knights "get it!" Pure luscious instro you.
Tiempos Malos (Hard Times) Rock (Instrumental)
Lovely guitar lines with gentle whammy give "Tiempos Malos" such an easy feel. Relaxed and very easy to like, this track floats on a soft-rain afternoon. Bluesy and excellent.
Rock (Instrumental)
This classic piece of music is just lovely! This song is hard not like anyway, and when Rich Stewart lays his considerable guitar artistry to it, it just hooks right into your heart. Simple, direct, and absolutely wonderful!
A bit of history: "Yellow Bird" is most often remembered from Arthur Lyman's 1961 exotica hit, it actually dates from 1893 when Michel Mauleart Monton wrote music to accompany Oswald Durand's 1883 poem "Choucoune."
Rock (Instrumental)
This is an interesting adaptation of Johnny Smith's "Walk Don't Run," partly inspired by his early fifties creation, partly by more familiar hits from Chet Atkins and The Ventures, but in large part, "Walk Don't Run, Too" is from the heart. Simple nice and easy on the nerves.
Rock (Instrumental)
The island imagery is unmistakable in this original instro. "Afterglow" is soft and seashore friendly, with a delicate backtrack and lovely Ventures whammy. Very pretty.
Rock (Instrumental)
Choral keys and soaring rock guitar provides a modern wash of synthesized sounds with an orchestral flair. Big drama, with lush ambiance. "Soul Searching" is unlike the rest of this album.