Snakecharmer proved that, despite the occasional auto-tuned pop music asteroid, a few clade-dinosaurian hard-rocking bands still had decent growls, howls, and scowls that carved really deep grooves into vinyl rock ‘n’ roll history.
They were a bit of a supergroup: Vocalist Chris Ousley came from Heartland, and he is in the very same orbit as Paul Rodgers, David Cloverdale, Ian Gillan, and Terry Wilson-Slesser from my beloved Back Street Crawler. Drummer Harry James played in Thunder. Neil Murray played with such diverse groups as Whitesnake and prog-jazzers National Health and Gilgamesh. Adam Wakeman (with serious pedigree!) was the keyboard guy, and the guitar fount flowed from Whitesnake’s Micky Moody and (holy cow) Laurie Wisefield of Wishbone Ash and (my equally beloved band) Home.
Snakecharmer produced enough twin-guitar ecstasy to melodically burn with mutual anti-gravitational delight over two studio albums. They’ve both been collected by Cherry Red on Anthology, then bolstered with two live shows.
Just a personal note: My father-in-law was a master stone-mason, and I watched him work with rocks: He examined the size, the shape, the color, the texture. He knew the soul of any stone, which he always said, “had its perfect place.” I loved to watch him work. Ditto for Snakecharmer: They also worked in rock, and they magically fit the size, the shape, the color, the texture, and the deep lovely soul into their heavy musical masonry.
Their first self-titled album is a cornucopia of tough rock, fiery vocals, and sublime guitar work. This is master-craftsman rock music, which will appeal to the lovers of No Smoke Without Fire-era Wishbone Ash, as the twin guitars flow with melodic magic. In fact, “Falling Leaves” begins with an acoustic touch, but then it gets epic and sinewy with lovey electric guitars. The drama deepens and gets into matrix of beauty which ends with a Laurie Wisefield solo that echoes the ending of Wishbone Ash’s intense sunset finale on Argus, “Throw Down the Sword.” This music floats on sublime air.
“A Little Rock & Roll” is even better: It begins with a groove worthy of the best Foghat-boogied poker hand. Then vocalist Chris O grinds sweet and intense coffee, and those blessed guitars simply savor a melodic slow dance (with wah-wah galore!) that graces a favorite late-night romance memory. The ending is great vocal resurgence with a clever coda. And there’s two bonus tracks, “White Boy Blues” and the acoustic tune, “A Breath Away.”
Put simply, the entirety of Snakecharmer oozes of classic stuff by ace musicians who know how to coax the size, the shape, the color, the texture, and the very soul of any nice piece of heavy rock, without any glance at dark metal or grunge horror-picture soundtrack – and the two extra tunes serve as a template for the bounty of the entire 13-track album.
The band’s next and final studio album, Second Skin from 2017, perfects this tapestry and perhaps ups the funky and (sometimes) acoustic groove. “Sounds Like a Plan” has a southern bayou Creedence feel, and “Are You Ready to Fly” echoes the drama of Bad Company’s “Shooting Star.” Big compliments! “Hell of a Way to Live” continues the hark rocking funk that Deep Purple displayed in their Machine Head song, “Maybe I’m a Leo.” As my friend Kilda Defunt said of the album, “Perhaps, in good time, we all get to be some sort of Leo.”
There’s more hard rocking variety: “Forgive and Forget” erupts in big-chorus gospel power, with young Wakeman’s piano and organ coloring the sound – and of course, the absolutely gorgeous twin guitar sound, now with Simon McBride paired with (still remaining Home and Ash guy) Laurie Wisefield. There’s also another bonus track, “On My Way,” which is a nice acoustic coda addition to the drama of Second Skin. Again, just a few songs are cited among Snakecharmer’s 12-song followed up, but there’s not a duff tune here.
Anthology also includes are two live discs, from Jan. 26, 2014 and Jan. 17, 2015 at the Stables in Milton Keynes. Both have really nice sound. Snakecharmer is loose and often quite funky, with a nice juxtaposition to the pristine studio sound.
Three new songs, “Walking in the Shadow of the Blues,” “Slow An’ Easy” and a cover of Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” were not included on previous albums. A booklet featuring a band interview by Dave Ling is paired with set, which has been newly remastered by Tony Dixon.
There’s a whole lotta alchemy goin’ on in these grooves. Snakecharmer never turned anything into gold, but it did manage the magical mystery of decent, clever, inventive, and just plain wonderful hard-rocking music. Like any master stone mason, they produced music that found the perfect place for any rock – regardless of any size, shape, color, texture, and soul.
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