ROBBEN FORD Keep On Running (Concord Records) Rating: NN
Rating: NN
Robben Ford’s credentials as a guitarist are top-notch. Stints with Miles Davis, Little Feat and George Harrison are enough to make any axeman blush, and he loves 60s R&B to boot. Too bad that breadth isn’t evident on Keep On Running. Ford’s true voice comes out of his guitar, and while his chops are beyond reproach, his vocals certainly aren’t. Sounding consistently weak and distant, Ford can hardly convey the emotional impact needed to do justice to Cream’s Badge and Spencer Davis’s Keep On Running. Not surprisingly, then, things heat up when Ford lets his guitar do the talking, like on the excellent Cannonball Shuffle and the understated Hand In Hand With The Blues.
The Robben Ford Band hit the Horseshoe February 27.
