{"id":19164,"date":"2012-03-12T09:44:14","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T14:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=19164"},"modified":"2013-01-29T10:06:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T15:06:47","slug":"lance-lopez-handmade-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/lance-lopez-handmade-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Lopez | Handmade Music<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\nStaff Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"An inviting promise of a hearty feast of Southern rock, the first two cuts of Lance Lopez\u2019s new album turn out to be deceptive starters. After the initial thrill the juicy, muscly guitar strutting over a life-affirming Elmore James groove on opener \u201cCome Back Home\u201d and the blustery locomotion of the follow-up \u201cHard Time\u201d, things suddenly start sliding downhill. The intense, ballsy conviction of Lopez\u2019s blowout blues-rock chops, his edgy guitar tone, and rocks-and-gravel voice – spot-on in its raw, swaggering intonation – are swiftly replaced by tired, done-to-death clich\u00e9s interested in little apart from radio play and chart action. <\/p>\n

The press release hails Lopez as a follower the great Texas blues tradition, but a SRV or a Billy Gibbons he is not. Although at times so close, you forget his blatant hankering after mainstream\u2019s patronage on the mild roots-meet-pop crowd-pleasers which make up the bulk of this album. It\u2019s not the solicitations of mainstream success, however, which place him in a different league from his legendary predecessors, nor the hurried sleekness of his practiced chops, and not even his apparent inability to take subtle liberties with the metre. It\u2019s rather the derivative, commonplace phrasing that doesn\u2019t let Lopez depart from what is prescribed and touch upon things which turn regular guitar players \u2013 no matter how chopsy \u2013 into unique artists.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s time for the melancholy closer \u201cLowdown Ways\u201d, the credit of trust is all but expired, the cut coming through more caustic than heartfelt, with Lopez\u2019s hurried, pause-free solos further confirming that there is some rethinking to be done before continuing to refer to SRV or Hendrix as personal touchstones. But with nothing in music being strictly this or that, in the end you could still say that Lopez succeeds in his own way as a niche standard-bearer for a certain type of Americana, or that he simply is an artist who chose tradition to construct his own personal comfort zone, despite being equipped well enough to use it to discover something very personal and new.<\/p>\n

Genre: Blue Rock, Blues, Roots<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1. Come Back Home
\n2. Hard Time
\n3. Let Go
\n4. Dream Away
\n5. Get Out And Walk
\n6. Your Love
\n7. Traveling Riverside Blues
\n8. Letters
\n9. Vaya Con Dios
\n10. Black Cat Moan
\n11. Can You Feel It
\n12. Lowdown Ways<\/p>\n

Label: MIG \/ String Commander<\/p>\n

Online: http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/lancelopez<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: MIG \/ String Commander<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai Staff Writer — An inviting promise of a hearty feast of Southern rock, the first two cuts of Lance Lopez\u2019s new album turn out to be deceptive starters. After the initial thrill […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}