April Wine
First Glance

April Wine is a Canadian band from Nova Scotia, devoted to a hard rock that mixes the dry and "motor-like" style of the nearby northeastern United States (with Detroit as its focal point, a metropolis that gave rise to artists like Alice Cooper, MC5, Grand Funk, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger...) with the more sly and laid-back style of Southern Rock, another all-American form of rock blues born, however, three thousand kilometers further south, between Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

The Southern component of this quintet's music is ensured by the presence of no less than three guitarists, who indulge in cross solos and solo parts in harmony as is typical of that genre; additionally, there is a certain characteristic use of the slide guitar, as well as the tendency to turn to country in ballads, and finally, that all-American capacity and desire of the rhythm section (bass and drums) to swing with the rhythm, giving it a warm and fluid  groove, something not so easily explained in words but that has always distinguished good American rock from good European rock, equally interesting if not better mind you (especially in terms of originality and creativity), but never as "round" and rolling as it can be on the other side of the Atlantic.

Virtually unknown in Italy, these gentlemen have managed to put out about twenty albums in forty-plus years of career so far, with this being their seventh, dated 1978. The central and indispensable figure of the band is Myles Goodwin, a fertile composer, good singer, and guitarist, also pianist, and keyboardist when needed. Everyone else is equally adept at handling their instruments, but the group rarely tends to overdo it, with solos being mostly measured and songs lasting all the usual four minutes or so.

The most prominent episode is titled "Roller" and is at shuffle (triplet) rhythm, nicely charged and engaging, with a well-crafted instrumental portion, where the three guitarists let loose, taking turns at solos, first in eight-bar rounds, then four, then two, and finally one, as well as harmonizing together two or even three at a time. This piece is truly engaging, their showpiece at concerts.

The effective voice of leader Goodwin (also producer) shines in the opening episode "Get Ready For Love", a little academic but also enhanced by a nice slide guitar work. It's one of the pieces from the "southern" side of their repertoire, immediately contradicted by the subsequent "Hot On The Wheels Of Love", which has everything, from the title to the police sirens to the screeching tires to the super tough guitars to the knotted and overly compressed bass, to be associated with Harley Davidsons and convertibles racing along one of the endless American highways.

A couple of ballads (one with a screaming harmonica, handled by guitarist and backup singer Brian Greenway and titled "Rock'n'Roll is A Vicious Game") as per a well-tested canon serve to cool the race, but not the intensity and above all the constant good soul of the performances. In "I'm Alive"  and then again in "Let Yourself Go", April Wine do a precise take on Foghat, an early British band with roots in the late sixties London of Cream and Savoy Brown, which only found success and followers once relocated in the USA: the resemblance is striking, with that slapback echo on the voice borrowed from rockabilly and generally from early sixties rock'n'roll.

The dark and menacing final blues rock "Silver Dollar", dragged out by the flanger effect placed almost everywhere, closes the album by exhibiting very thick fanfares of guitars in unison, acid solos with wah-wah, tolling bells, infinite vibratos on the keyboards.