The Larry Lee Ray Band’s On The Right Track is a bluesy rock album with a songwriter feel mixed with decades of musical wisdom, and ten brilliant songs to prove it with music influenced by everything from 60s blues and rock of the Beatles to much later blues territory such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and players of the same ilk. The songs go from one extreme to another without losing their sense of belong together, and they all take some time to absorb, but once you get it, you’re hooked and just want to play this truly album all night.
The American working-class life needs as much guitar and clever storytelling as it can get, and On The Right Track is completely full of dive-bombing guitar riffs and solos, which Larry Lee Ray wastes no time getting down to. “I’m a “Blue Collar Man” establishes almost everything the album is about, because it’s not all bluesy rock, it’s just part of the skillset and sound of Larry Lee Ray and The Tradesman. This is also a hot way to get the album going without displacement leaving it buried somewhere else when there’s a few curveballs throughout On The Right Track.
“Take A Pill” is fun, but anything worth warning about is usually fun at first, and this is just poke at the whole routine of going to the doctor and coming home with pills and bills. A turn for the higher volume happens on “Stone Cold” with some more of the same humor the Larry Lee Ray Band to be found on most of On The Right Track, just not all of it. This one does contain some of the most incendiary guitar parts on it from Larry Lee Ray, so it must be mentioned as one of my go-to songs.
“Shackles Of The Working Man” is a standout piece, with an epic vocal delivery from Larry Lee Ray, showing what the album is all about, with the ties of the working man being the focal point, and Ray backing it with some more mean guitar playing. “Invisible Me” is another turning point for On The Right Track with an almost industrial (fuzzy) rock sound making it stand out in another way, but it’s worth its place on the album even though it comes from another era I can’t put my finger on but maybe that’s some of the magic of it.
“Young Enough” is more like it for me, as the energy perks up and the rock comes on a little stronger, but it does stay in the same lane of the previous cut, but it’s much more satisfying. “Rich Girl,” “Hey You,” and “My Little Town” all live up to the same standard as the rest of On The Right Track, but Larry Lee Ray saved another epic gem for the final cut. “Hired Gun” is a closer worth the wait, as it turns out as sizzling hot as the opener and rounds out a well- crafted album.
Chadwick Easton