In between a brief live stint with Whitesnake and his now 30+ year run with Def Leppard, iconic guitarist Vivian Campbell formed a band that seems to have since been buried by the sands of time, Riverdogs. Their self titled debut album did little to nothing in terms of commercial performance, which is unfortunate, but rather unsurprising. The year was 1990. Both glam and thrash metal were celebrating their last hurrahs before the incoming Nirvanapocalypse of ’91. Needless to say, Riverdogs’ amalgamation of 70s flavored hard, blues, and southern rock didn’t fit into either of these boxes, leaving them forever in the “cult classic” category (How The Black Crowes transcended this trap is beyond me.)
Fast forward nearly 35 years later and Riverdogs still record and perform periodically. The key word here is “periodically”, because when you’re generating the money and crowds that Leppard does, you don’t want that train to stop rollin’ anytime soon. Nevertheless, Campbell still has an old school rock n’ roll itch to scratch. He sure can’t do so with the arena rock of Leppard or classic metal of Last in Line. The same can be said for Riverdogs singer from day one, Rob Lamothe, who has kept more than busy with solo and side projects, his latest being Cross Country Driver.
Featuring an all-star roster of guest appearances from dUg Pinnick (King’s X), Greg Chaisson (Badlands), Mike Mangini (Dream Theater), and so forth, Cross Country Driver’s debut album, The New Truth, is more or less an extension of Lamothe’s work with Riverdogs, boasting both classic rockers and acoustic ballads. The rock songs run the gamut of the glorious 70s without sounding like a cheap rehash, or worse yet, phoned in. Pinnick delivers his signature hard grooving basslines and soulful vocals to funk n’ roller “A Man with No Direction” and the dark, Thin Lizzy inspired “Rio Tularosa” (my choice cut). Other highlights include the powerful “Shine” and mk. III Purple nostalgia of “Long Gone”.
Where The New Truth loses me is with its overabundance of ballads. I can understand one or two scattered throughout the course of an album to give it some depth. However, this album almost feels less like a hard rock album with the occasional ballad and more like a ballad album with the occasional hard rocker. Granted, some are better than others. I appreciate the exotic Led Zeppelin III vibe of “So Fly”, and even the rootsy “Wild Child”. But as things progressed, I found this album to be more and more of a struggle finish; not solely because of its nearly hour long running time (again with the CD filling), but because of the 4 consecutive and sonically similar ballads that closed it out.
Overall, The New Truth is an album that, with a bit of fat-trimming and more rockers, could’ve been another enjoyable Frontiers outing. Lamothe isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, and hey, I give him credit for that. This is a guy who’s been sticking to his guns for 35+ years, and whether you or I know or care is really irrelevant. On that note, I can only wish Lamothe and this latest vehicle the best. I just hope Cross Country Driver’s sophomore effort has a bit more drive to it.
4 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: Hard Rock
For fans of: Riverdogs, The Black Crowes, King’s X