HEAVEN AND EARTH at THE CANYON CLUB 9/21/2013

This was a fun show. Heaven and Earth (twitter, FB) is a great band and their new album is full of great songs and playing.

The music has kind of a vintage/ classic rock vibe and sound to it, but is better than just about all the new music out there. Perhaps it could be described as new music that has stood the test of time? In any case, it rocks and sounds great. With great vocals, killer organ playing, slick guitar work, drumming, and having one of of the best bass players out there as a guest, this was quite a show. Their albums and vids on YouTube have really great production. Not only do they have great album artwork, but they also have a cool logo, too. It’s apparent that a lot of time, thought, money and effort went into this production.

Arlan Schierbaum on Keyboards
Joe Retta on Vocals, Slide Guitar, Harmonica and Percussion
Stuart Smith on Guitars (wikipedia)
Richie Onori on Drums (website)

They were joined on this night on bass by “The Fretless Monster” Tony Franklin (Twitter), who is still out touring with Kenny Wayne Shepherd (the KWS band has played at the Canyon and is another fantastic band of musicians who really bring the music). Seeing Tony play with Heaven and Earth was fantastic. Just being able to sit there and watch him play was a real treat. You could tell he really put a lot of effort into covering for this gig and learning all these song. His bass solo was fantastic. And he rocked along with the rest of the band, who were also joined on backing vocals by the Agape Choir. They added a lot of the choruses of the songs which they appeared on.

Heaven and Earth did a dozen original tunes and went way back with a couple classics for the encore. “Hush” absolutely rocked to close out their set.

If you appreciate something other than all the lame new electronic music, crummy rapping and today’s mostly poor music scene, then definitely see this band if you get a chance.