V/A - Cat Scratch Fever - Tribute To Ted Nugent

*=Staff's pick	Cat Scratch Fever* - (John Corabi/Mötley Crüe, Union, Ratt) Strangehold - (Marq Torien/Bullet Boys) Hey Baby - (Taime Downe/Newlydeads/Faster Pussycats) Just What The Doctor Ordered - (Kory Clark/Warrior Soul) Journey To The Center Of The Mind - (Phil Lewis/L.A. Guns) Wango Tango - (Stevie Rachelle/Tuff) Motorcity Madhouse - (Kelly Hansen/Hurricane) Wang Dang Sweet Poontang - (Alex Mitchell/Circus Of Power) Free For All - (Jani Lane/Warrant) Dog Eat Dog* - (Jizzy Pearl/Ratt, Love Hate) Need You Bad - (Spike/Quireboys)

Genre	Hard Rock	Various, see tracklist	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jake E. Lee	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	DJ Ashba	Guitar
Label	Mausoleum Records	Chuck Garric	Bass
Release	01 June 2005	Randy Castillo	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent to me is synonymous with Cat Scratch Fever, which is usually the only song I can mention coming from him without needing to think for ten minutes. But there is more to it than just Cat Scratch Fever and among many he is considered as a guitar hero. Ted Nugent has been going on since the sixties and with his band Amboy Dukes he was part of the Detroit rock scene before he went on by his own. He has released no less than 31 albums as a solo artist and also been a fourth of the super-group Damn Yankees that released two albums in the early nineties and gave us the hit ballad High Enough.

The band performing the songs on the tribute album has a backbone in Randy Castillo (R.I.P.) and Chuck Garric (L.A. Guns, Dio), and with guitarist Jake E. Lee (Ozzy) on six of the tracks and DJ Ashba on the other five, the line-up is complete. So this is a tribute band with guys that know what they are doing even if their contributions on this album do not seem to be any of their best playing. As I never really listened to Ted Nugent I can't really tell if they have done that much with the songs but it feels like there is a big lack of soul on these covers. Like something put together under a short period of time just for the sake of it. Apart from some guitar parts that actually do sound great, there is not much in this music for me - traditional rock/hard rock and a bunch of vocalists that hail from the sleaze scene.

And that is when the red lights of warning start spinning. This tribute album from Mausoleum Records has a lot in common with another tribute album released by them a little while ago. This album must have been done simultaneously as the Guns N' Roses Tribute which features many of the same vocalists and also Randy Castillo on drums that passed away in 2002. With the Guns N' Roses album the connection between the music the vocalists came from and the music they where paying tribute to felt natural, but here they are again and now the connection doesn't feel as natural any longer. And by now it feels like the tribute part isn't the focus with these albums, it feels like it is two albums done on demand and strict orders from the record company and it makes me start thinking what other tribute recordings they have stashed away ready for release in the future.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
5	5	4

Summary
3 chalices of 10 - Thomas