Smokey Fingers
Columbus Way

“What you represent for them is freedom.” (George Hanson)

Mr. Obama was right when he said that Italy has made impressive strides… in the sense that, politically speaking, we've been awful (or impressive) even to banana republics (our cigarette trade was rejected even by the famous Joe Banana of Beverly Hills Cop); but what if Obama, reasoning absurdly, was talking about something else?!

About serious music, for example?! I want to emphasize serious because, after the last Italian song festival where we all know the Butterfly won (not the one by Puccini, who I think would have had some trouble accepting the award), the rift between Italian music and Italians in music is becoming increasingly evident.

But in this case, it's not strictly necessary to look across the ocean to close your eyes and feel like a genuine American.

I'm talking about SMOKEY FINGERS; a quartet from Lodi who has deservedly taken the liberty, indeed, to produce an album without half measures. Immediate, precise, energetic, and damn Southern. I say southern because it's the broadest and most generic category in which to place this child of Tanzan Record, which, with the opener, “Old Jack” already starts off proudly, giving an idea of what's to come.

If we delve more into the details, the nuances of tracks like “Born to Run”, “Over the Line”, “The Good Countryside” leave the taste of whiskey in the mouth and the dust of the Mother Road Route 66 on the skin, with their country rock sounds. We're not talking about the syrupy sounds coming from the swamps of Alabama (which I respect nonetheless).

Versatile and smoking, with never-resting fingers, SMOKEY FINGERS also offer 70s/80s heavy rock pieces in the performances of “The Lover”, “Chains of Mind”, and “Die for the Glory”, making you want to hop on the beast on the cover and, as from the cover, follow that road to the sunset, roadhouse by roadhouse.

The voice of Luke (Gianlica Paterniti), the group's frontman, recalls passages of Molly Hatchet and here a bow is almost a must. Fabrizio Costa (bass), Daniele Vacchini (drums), and Diego Dragoni (guitars) give their all in 12 tracks worth listening to fully, traveling in the footsteps of Blackberry Smoke or Pat Travers, so much so that they even pay homage to a certain Mr. James Taylor.

In my opinion, to make this album completely perfect, a couple of harmonica 'blows' here and there would have fit nicely, but this doesn't affect the final result of a powerful and evocative album like this “COLUMBUS WAY” that, even in the finale with “Crazy Woman” and “Devil's Song”, keeps the spirit high.