Arlo Tarr

I’ve been disappointed with the last several music releases by some of my favorite artists the last couple of months.

The Black Crowes released “Happiness Bastards” and I couldn’t get into it. David Gilmour has released 2 singles off his upcoming album and it did not get me excited to hear more. Lenny Kravitz released “Blue Electric Light” back in May and I gave it a couple of listen thru’s and it didn’t do much for me.

I did like the new High on Fire release “Cometh the Storm”. It’s super heavy riffs with some interesting middle eastern instruments and influences. The new Black Country Communion album “V” has some really good songs. They leaned into their Led Zep and Deep Purple strengths to put out a solid offering.

For the most part though, I’ve been disappointed with the lack of quality music coming out.

So I was stoked to hear that Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains has a new single coming out this week. I was a HUGE fan of AIC when Layne Staley was still alive. After he passed, I stopped following them and just recently got into listening to their albums post-Layne. They have William Duvall on guitar and vocals now. The 3 albums with Duvall “Black Gives Way to Blue”, “The Devil put Dinosaurs Here” and “Rainier Fog” are all AWESOME!

In particular, “The Devil put Dinosaurs Here” has been a big influence on my own current songwriting. That album has the heavy riffs, vocal melodies/harmonies and searing melodic guitar solos that I want my songs to have. It’s giving me the focus and direction for my own writing.

So I’m really looking forward to Jerry’s new single. Mix engineer/producer Joe Barresi worked on this with Jerry. Joe has done a lot of work with Jerry and the band Tool.

So I’m stoked to hear the single. Hopefully a new Alice In Chains album is coming next! Check it out this Friday!!!