Neon Highway Blues is nothing more than a full-blown non-stop blues rock album, which was especially popular in this form in the seventies. Song for song it goes at full volume to work. With the exception of the penultimate song "Waiting on the Sun", which delivers exactly what you'd expect from the title: a labyrinth of soft, quiet guitar riffs. At least in relation to the other songs, relatively speaking. Really hard to the point, mercilessly kept on the go by the drums, it goes then again with "Damned If I Do", a highlight of the album, which not only pierces the ears, but also the mind. Gary Hoey once again polarizes his audience with his new album, some of whom are simply thrilled by the virtuoso guitar playing in connection with a consistently forward pushing, rocky presentation, while others reject him as too trivial. This rejection is based not least on shallow hits that Gary Hoey has been responsible for in past years as well as his adaptations of Christmas songs. You really don't have to like that. But you don't necessarily have to condemn a musician when he fishes in the all-too-popular every now and then, especially since with Neon Highway Blues he emphatically and skillfully shows that what drives him seriously is blues rock.
Renowned players guarantee for the new album of Gary Hoey, who beside his guitar, brought to sound with big tone and enormous dynamics, puts his rough tinted voice into the balance, the high level needed to keep this kind of rock from drowning in chaos, such as AJ Pappas, bass, Eric Gales, Josh Smith, Ian Hoey, son of Gary Hoey, and Lance Lopez on gui-tars, Gary Hoey, keyboards, and Matt Scurfield, drums.
Eric Gales and Gary Hoey open the album brilliantly with "Under The Rug". The icing on the cake of this energetically exuberant track is Hoey's wickedly sounding, rough voice. "Your Kind Of Love" is a dance floor slider with a rousing way. In "Don't Come Crying" the guitars of both Hoeys merge ideally and animate each other when playing alternately. The final title, which gives the album its name, is something like a summary of the preceding blues titles, the essence of which he sums up with a relatively simple melodic line.
"Neon Highway Blues" will not only gain a place of honor in the blues rock universe among die-hard Gary Hoey fans thanks to its highly professional style and thrilling performance. The second place of the just released album in the US Billboard Blues album Chart speaks for this assessment.
Gary Hoey, guitar, vocals
AJ Pappas, bass
Matt Scurfield, drums
Guests:
Eric Gales, vocals, guitar
Lance Lopez, vocals, guitar
Josh Smith, guitar
Ian Hoey, vocals