Iain grew up in New England and like many others was heavily influenced by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Bad Company and guitar players like Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. He studied guitar at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and to date has released three albums with this compilation bringing together tracks from all. The subtitle of this album is “The Best”, which sort of implies that these are the top songs from throughout his career, which probably is why he isn’t a household name. There is no doubt that he is an incredible guitarist, with a wonderful touch and sustain, but perhaps he would be better in a full band as opposed to having lots of guest singers as it doesn’t allow the listener to settle in and really get to grips with the music.
His debut ‘Fallen Angel’ was released originally in 1999 and from there we get singers Dante Marchi (“Goin’ Down And Dirty”, “Distant Memories”), Paul Shortino (“Hold On”) and Mike Stone (“The Outcaste”).’The Holy Grail came out in 2005 and saw him again with a stellar cast of singers, and five of the songs here are from that album: “Blood Of Kings” (David Montgomery), “Walking The Talk” and “The Holy Grail” (Graham Bonnet), “Calling For The Moon” (Carsten Schulz) and “Blink Of An Eye” (Randy Williams). His most recent album is ‘Nomad’ and here singer Carsten Schulz can be heard on the majority of songs with the ones featured here being “Voodoo Spirits”, “Sacrifice The Sun”, “Vintage Love” and “When Will My Love Fade”. Former Rainbow singer Doogie White took over the lead vocals on the one cover, “L.A. Connection”, and it has to be said that I would much rather listen to the original. Iain follows the original line extremely closely, but Doogie just isn’t patch on any of the previous Rainbow singers – his voice is too much like Coverdale for this to work.
The album is of course completed with a ‘previously unreleased’ song, so fans will feel obliged to buy it even if they have the three albums. But although there is an incredible cast of singers and there is no doubt that he is a fine guitarist this is worth passing by.
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