{"id":52198,"date":"2016-06-20T08:45:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=52198"},"modified":"2016-06-20T08:45:14","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:45:14","slug":"doogie-white-la-paz-shut-up-and-rawk-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2016\/doogie-white-la-paz-shut-up-and-rawk-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Doogie White & La Paz | Shut Up And Rawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Sr. Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"doogiewhite&lapaz_shutupandrawk\"Doogie White is one of those names the vast majority of rock listeners recognize immediately, be it his participation on the 1995 Rainbow album Stranger In Us All<\/em> or such bands as Cornerstone, Tucker\/Evans\u2019 incarnation of Tank or Michael Schenker\u2019s Temple Of Rock. However, years before all those projects took place (and more than a decade before joining forces with Ritchie Blackmore) the Scottish songster became a founding member of the hard rock five-piece La Paz alongside Chic McSherry and Alex Carmichael. Having called it quits in 1988, the group reunited more than two decades later. Their post-hiatus activity, from 2009 upwards, brought three albums released under the auspices of Metal Mind Productions \u2013 Granite<\/em> (2012), The Dark And The Light<\/em> (2013) and, most recently, Shut Up And Rawk<\/em>.<\/p>\n

First seconds into the latter, the listener should feel entirely convinced about the title\u2019s validity. The intensity of the opening drum roll morphs into the powerful, melodic riff of the first track \u201cLight The Fire\u201d \u2013 a testimony to some serious rocking or \u201crawking\u201d, being proceeded here indeed. Further into the album, the instrumental forces of La Paz alongside their frontman seem to be consequent in their straightforwardness. The sheer power of songs such as \u201cHeart Of Stone\u201d, \u201cNo Place In Heaven\u201d or \u201cThrow Me To The Wolves\u201d simply speaks for itself. The dynamic, modern guitars set the tempo whereas rich and varied Hammond embellishments \u2013 far from being just occasional embroidery to the tracks \u2013 add a bit of the ’70s, vintage vibe to the sound of La Paz. <\/p>\n

The Hammonds and guitars are indeed the essence of the album, from the organ outro to \u201cA Certain Song\u201d or progressive passages in otherwise bluesy \u201cFaith Hope And Love\u201d to the gritty, six-string-driven groove of \u201cRetribution Blues\u201d and \u201cDaughter Of Time\u201d. Their 1970s hard rock influences dominant, La Paz introduces also different flavors to their current sound \u2013 as in \u201cLittle Miss Dynamite\u201d, a shameless manifestation of their fascination with genres collectively recognized as Americana. The lengthy intros to \u201cThe Prize\u201d and the final ballad-ish track \u201cBook Of Shadows\u201d have almost cinematic dimension to them, heavily contrasted with the overall pace and intensity of the album.<\/p>\n

Shut Up And Rawk<\/em> is an impressive album from the seasoned unit of musicians still able to combine their classic influences and modern approach to music recording into one. It\u2019s a collection of songs of predictably high quality, each of them crafted to fit the wide range of tastes \u2013 from aficionados of vintage Uriah Heep-esque aesthetics to contemporary Melodic Hard Rock fans. If you belong to either of those groups, be sure to check it out.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nDoogie White – vocal
\nChic McSherry – guitar
\nAlex Carmichael – bass
\nAndy Mason – keyboards
\nPaul McManus – drums<\/p>\n

Tracklist:
\n1. Light The Fire
\n2. Heart Of Stone
\n3. No Place In Heaven
\n4. The Revenge Of El Guapo
\n5. A Certain Song
\n6. Retribution Blues
\n7. Daughter Of Time
\n8. The Prize
\n9. Faith Hope And Love
\n10. Throw Me To The Wolves
\n11. Little Miss Dynamite
\n12. Book Of Shadows<\/p>\n

Label: Metal Mind Productions<\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/www.lapazrocks.com\/<\/a> – www.facebook.com\/LaPaz.rocks<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Sr. Columnist — Doogie White is one of those names the vast majority of rock listeners recognize immediately, be it his participation on the 1995 Rainbow album Stranger In Us All […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":52200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13652],"tags":[2317,8490,1103,12419,5955,12420],"class_list":{"0":"post-52198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2016","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-doogie-white","10":"tag-hard-rock","11":"tag-la-paz","12":"tag-metal-mind-productions","13":"tag-shut-up-and-rawk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52198","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=52198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}