Johnny Casino – Vibrations Yours And Min

Johnny Casino – Vibrations Yours And Mine

Album review by; The Dark Cookie

What can I tell you about JOHNNY CASINO? Well too be honest not a whole lot. I chose to review this album purely because that is a cool name, and no one with a name that cool could produce bad music right? Phew! Right it was. Perhaps not exactly what I was expecting, but not that far away either.

But what about the person? Again not a whole lot, and all gleaned from the interweb, so if any of it’s wrong I apologies to Mr. CASINO now. What we have is a bit of an old fashioned troubadour, Musician and Tattoo artist from Australia, having travelled the world playing music and inking people, and currently residing in Spain.

I understand this is a slightly different record for JOHNNY, a much more stripped down approach to the recording, essentially taking himself off to the studio, just the man, his guitar and thoughts to get the bare bones of the thing, and then polish and add a bit of percussion etc. and he got his mate HENDRICK to add someslide guitar here and there, with the end result being a mostly acoustic, laid-back, wistful collection of tunes. Yes I would call it Americana, with a leaning towards bluesy acoustic rock and roll, and the merest hint of Spanishflavors.

There’s stuff that remind me of THE WHITE BUFFALO, or LEADFOOT, songs that would not be out of place on the soundtrack toSons Of Anarchy. I was also surprised to find out the majority of the songs here are covers, mainly because with the exception of the obvious song “Wichita Lineman” I was not aware of any of them, something I think enhanced my enjoyment of the record.

So you get a mixture of wistful understated songs such as “I Hear You Calling” the opening slow-burn, and “Postcards” and “Ghost Ships”, all of which are greatly enhanced by the addition of the slide work. To the “louder” numbers like “I Scare Myself” where the guitar gets loud, and has a definite Latin feel to it, and “Sundown” which is where the rock and roll creeps in, I can hear the ghost of thedo-wop’s under its surface.

Too be honest the song I was most familiar with, ended up being the weakest track of the collection, which says nothing about the weakness of the song, but attests to the strength of everything else, there isn’t a bad song here. I cannot wrap up without singling out last track “Tears In A Town She Calls Home”. Simply beautiful! Some amazing acoustic guitar playing, a song that builds and builds, and then simply fades away leaving the listener spent.

So is this what I was expecting? Nope not at all. Was it good, hell yes! Sometimes it pays to take a leap of faith and this leap paid me back in spades, I love it.

4.5 out of 5

Musicians;

Johnny Casino– Vocals, Guitars

Hendrick Rover–Slide Guitar

Social Media Links;

Facebook; https://m.facebook.com/therealjohnnycasino/

Bandcamp; https://johnnycasino.bandcamp.com/album/vibrations-yours-and-mine

You Tube; https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mwylKIMWlEcZek0iuur3bOxeF0QLil3PI

Spotify; https://open.spotify.com/artist/3MGNNv7Lnl5Ybk8oFjzjnN?si=T_fN96luQ9enzr9p9DqX4A

Track listing;
1. I Hear you Calling

2. Postcards

3. Ghost Ships