Ronnie Wood
I Feel Like Playing

That the solo outings of the various Stones have never shone is a fact, unfortunately indelibly etched in the history of records, but that it would be Ronnie Wood trying to reverse the trend, no one would have ever expected, especially when competing with two giants like the renowned duo Jagger/Richards.

For a moment, set aside the latest less than edifying news of domestic gossip (divorces, incarcerations, alcohol, and other classic rockstar news), Ron Wood throws himself back into the rock'n'roll scene, producing an album that has been missing from the Stones' discography for many years. Because deep down, by his own admission, Wood is a rock addict, one of the many survivors who, without his guitar and his vices, would soon end his days, much like those old-fashioned company heads, all about home and work, who, after being forced into retirement by old age, soon find their health abandoning them as well.

To record his solo comeback, he is helped by a large number of prestigious guests: Slash, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), the old friend "era Faces" Ian McLagan, Kris Kristofferson, and many others. What emerges is an honest, pure, and enjoyable album of rustic and stonian rock to the marrow. From the rock of Lucky Man, Thing About You (with Gibbons on fire) and I Don't Think So, to the reggae of Sweetness My Weakness, the soul of I Gotta See and Catch You.

Wood improvises as Dylan at the opening of the album with the beautiful ballad Why You Wanna Go and Do a Thing Like That For and enjoys the blues of Spoonful (Willie Dixon) and Fancy Pants with plenty of harmonica. It's just rock, fun and carefree, made and played by someone who knows how to do nothing else in life (which is not even true, since Wood is also a very respectable painter) we like it and it gives us hope for the future of the "stones," which is not a small thing for a band that for more than twenty years has been pointed out as a band of dinosaurs but, one way or another, manages to keep people talking about them.