'Morning Rain' is the very first album. An original collection of twelve songs written and recorded in 2006 by Mark Gamblin. The album is a blues & blues/rock style.
'Morning Rain' is a 'live' studio recording. Gamblin insisted that he wanted to get a near as possible live sound, so you will find hardly any overdubbing with no electronic fixes, loops or samples to the recording.
'Morning Rain' was meant to be a 'real' blues album, however too many of Gamblin's influences at the time (clapton, hendrix, stevie ray vaughan, gary moore) came through creating a blues and blues'rock album. Standout songs would be 'Bad Luck' 'Lonely man blues' 'Stranger' 'my old troubles' 'tears that fall'
Lead Guitar and Vocals: Mark Gamblin
Bass Guitar: Lloyd Arrow
Drums: Rick Relliy-Davison
and Rick Arrow on backing Guitar
Produced By: Mark Gamblin, Rick Relliy-Davison, Lloyd Arrow.
Recorded At The Dugout Studios. Hampshire, England.
Engineered By: Geoff Webb
Recorded In 2006
Blues Matters! Review of 'Morning Rain' Album is posted below.
'The album opens with a kind of fuzzy, distorted guitar sound that alerts you immediately to the influences of the performer.
Hendrix, Clapton and the 60s Blues-Rock crowd are the order of the day here, at least where the guitar is concerned. Vocally, Mark Gamblin has clearly worked hard at perfecting a raw and husky vocal style that wants to sound like John Lee Hooker.
Tracks like the instrumental 'Bad Luck' display a high degree of skill on the guitar, though a penchant for slightly showy soloing and perhaps a little too much repetition on the number in question highlight the British Blues- Rock formula.
Gamblin says the aim of the album was to capture the sound of his live perfomances and thier energy. As such, the album was recorded almost completely live, with minimal overdubs and no obvious studio trickery. If this is a true example, and if Mark Gamblin is as much of a showman as his playing leads us to belivie, then he is probably hugely entertaining in performnce.
As with other artists (Carlos Santana springs to mind) Gamblin is a performer who likes to take his muisc down unexpected avenues.'
Matt Merritt.
$ USD
