RockIt Records & Recording Catalog

Greg Koch/4 Days In The South

Format: CD
Label: Distributed by RockIt Records
Genre: Blues, Rock
Description: Southern Fried Blues and Rock
Price: $16.00

Tracks:

1. Bored to Tears
2. When Were The Good Old Days?
3. Can't Get There From Here
4. Your Face
5. Thems The Breaks
6. Fool's Gold
7. Keep On Singin'
8. The Love Contractor
9. Folsum Prison Blues
10. Chicken From Hell
11. JSK

Musicians:

Greg Koch
John Calarco
Tom Good
Roscoe Beck
Willie Porter
Steve Cohen

Reviews:

Despite a string of previous releases this was my first encounter with Greg Koch and his work. “4 Days In The South” was a good introduction with the material on this collection offering some bluesy tinged rock with elements of other styles and all mixed in with outstanding guitar technique, original songwriting and enthusiastic delivery.

This is heralded as “a southern ‘chicken-fried' blues rock bonanza!” on the CD booklet and this just about covers what you can expect. Some great blues with the opener “Bored To Tears”, “The Love Contractor” and my favourite “Your Face”, a portion of southern rock with “When Were The Good Old Days?” and a little bit of country in “Keep On Singin”. “Keep On Singing” presents an unusual ingredient in this recipe which does more to show Greg's musical versatility than add any substance to the rest of the collection. Despite this I enjoyed my introduction to Greg Koch and so might you if you've not encountered him before, especially if you're up for a nice mixture of blues and southern rock with good guitar work and some inventive songwriting. Greg has been dubbed “an eclectic virtuoso” and “4 Days In The South” is a testament to that description.

Jukebox

October 2005

Fender guitar demonstrator, Greg Koch a top session player, a Mid West guitar legend and one of the hottest players on the planet.

But then again there are countless other great players about, but what sets “4 Days In The South” apart from Greg's previous recorded output, and indeed apart from his contemporaries is his willingness to shift styles at the drop of a hat, moving from Rock/Blues with an Allman Brothers feel to gentle funk, via some warped country and even a brilliantly conceived stab at Zappa on the self penned ‘Chicken From Hell'.

This “twisted guitar genius”, with some frightningly catholic musical tastes isn't the world's greats singer, but there's so much depth to his playing and variety to his oeuvre, that you can overlook this shortfall, and revel in the magisterial playing.
There's something for everyone from the steam train shuffle, ‘Bored To Tears' which features some of Greg's incredible tone, and exhilarating playing to the Duane Allman style slide piece ‘When Were The Good Old Days?” and even an unlikely but totally convincing rendition of Johnny Cash's ‘Fulsom Prison Blues'.

Guitar fans and rock/blues fans alike will sure love this latest “king of the strings”, best summarised as virtuoso playing made fun.

Pete Feenstra, (UK)

Nov 2005