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Healing Sixes - One Less Friend To Ignore

Published October 18 2008


*
=Staff's pick

Port-O-Let Monkey*
Tonight Nothing's Wrong
$ Shot
Song For Someone
The Fool In Love
What I Want
Press Dead Again*
Loretta Left For Racine
Show Me Something Good
Thorn In My Side*
Lovers Chant*
Ride The Moon*
Beautiful Love*
The Driving Song


Genre Southern Rock
Doug Henthorn
Vocals
Tracks 14
Doug Henthorn
Guitar
Runningtime 58 Min.
Eric Saylors
Guitar
Label Douchedog
Doug Henthorn
Bass
Release 03 November 2006
Wade Parosh
Drums
Country USA
Doug Henthorn
Keyboard
Similar artists Cry Of Love, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin

Healing Sixes may be a band not that familiar to the general listener. It has, to my own surprise, however been the home of Airrace/Foreigner/Bonham drummer Jason "son of John" Bonham for two albums and four years. I actually found the band on MySpace, ordered the new, third, album and was hooked.

The singer, Doug Henthorn, reminded me of someone but I couldn't put my finger on it. A bluesy, rough edged, but soulful voice. It wasn't until track number 12, "Ride The Moon" it clicked. That riff… where did I know that from?… I though for a split second. Yes - "Heading For The Zeros"! One of my all time favourite albums by US band Pod (nope not the Christian nu-metal band).

The album was actually never released, but later Escape Records unearthed the album "Hung" by the same band. Slightly different, more polished and not by far as good as the unreleased gem (turns out "Hung" was actually recorded without Doug and before "Headed For The Zeros").

To make a long story short, Doug Henthorn was the lead singer of Pod on the unreleased "Headed For The Zeros" album. Like many other bands they were signed by a major, recorded a killer album and they shelved it (assholes!). Doug has now released three CDs with Healing Sixes.

If you're into southern style blues oriented melodic hard rock with great variation, this is a definite catch for you. The album opener "Port-O-Let Monkey" is a driving, almost sleazy rocker sounding a bit like if you're mixing early Aerosmith and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Cool shit, indeed! "Tonight Nothing's Wrong" and "$ Shot" are on the other hand more in vein of The Black Crowes, while "Song For Someone" is quite an odd semi-soft pop/soul/rocker.

There's quite a bit of vintage Bad Company or Free, if you will, in "The Fool In Love", while the Led Zeppelin-influences shine through in songs like "What I Want", the heavy stompers "Press Dead Again" and "Beautiful One". One of my favourites of the album is the heavy riff-oriented "Ride The Moon", with the recycled riffs from an old Pod number, and the awesome bluesy riffster "Thorn In My Side" that reminds me a bit of the sadly missed Cry Of Love.

To sum it up, "One Less Friend To Ignore" is a killer album if you're into the bluesier more melodic side of things. Not a weak track!


Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

8

7

8

9

8

 
Summary



8 chalices of 10 - Stark


Related links:

www.healingsixes.com
www.myspace.com/healingsixes