Broken Vessel - Southern Fried Rock & Blues

Tuesday 1st April 1997
Broken Vessel - Southern Fried Rock & Blues

STYLE: Blues
RATING 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 17386-CAS2104
LABEL: Independent
FORMAT: Cassette Album

Reviewed by Nigel Harris

This debut album from Northern California just squeezes into the blues category on my subjective classification of the 11 tracks, of which six are blues and five arc heavy rock! Whitccross's drummer reckons. "They sound like a Christian version of Lynyrd Skynyrd" and having opened for the R.A.W. (Resurrection Band and Whitecross) tour you get a pretty good idea where they're coming from. Subtitled 'Southern-fried Rock & Blues', they serve up a delicious bed of rock solid drums and bass with lashings of power chords topped off with some excellent lead and slide guitar. The lead guitar breaks come in serious portion sizes too! Several tracks feature wonderful blues guitar in the mould of Stevie Ray Vaughan while others are reminiscent of the Allman Brothers, plus of course the aforementioned Lynyrd Skynyrd. All the tracks bar one were penned by lead vocalist and guitar maestro Richard Morris - the one cover is Darrell Mansfield's "The Mission" which, while lacking the gravelly passion of Darrell's vocals, is a great track. Morris's vocals are a little weak on occasions and the backing vocals almost inaudible, but as a taste of what must be a great live hand this album is well worth sending for.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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Reader Comments

Posted by Ray Monasmith in Wyoming @ 15:55 on Apr 11 2022

Our brother Richard ascended to glory on December 4, 2021.
I am trying to record a number of songs he had written but never recorded. He told me that he had also been working with Randy Marshall (former Broken Vessel guitarist) to record all his material, hopefully before he died. I don't have Randy's contact info, but I believe he lives in Nevada somewhere. I have a few hours of raw audio recordings from visits with Richard in 2016 where we rehearsed several of his unrecorded songs. I'm trying to mix them down into viable tracks, possibly with overdubs, but I'm not a producer by any definition.
I miss my brother more than I anticipated I would, but I'm glad he is finally "pain and worry free", seeing his crown and King Jesus.



Posted by Janet Dawson in Bepre Ohio @ 22:34 on Feb 22 2017

Loved this cassette



Posted by Lonnie Hines in Roseville, CA USA @ 05:00 on Jan 25 2016

Richard Morris has resurrected The Broken Vessel Band as a 3 piece. Richard is of course on guitar and lead vocals, Tigger Young on Drums and myself, Lonnie Hines on bass guitar. We did play the July 4 BACA Rally in 2014 as mentioned by Beverly above, but it was moved to Folsom CA at the Harley Dealership. We've played several gigs since then including Music in the Park in Shingle Springs Harvest Festival in Oct 2015. Currently working on a website and new CD with some new material by Richard.



Posted by Beverly Burns in United States @ 06:01 on Mar 31 2014

The band has been 'resurrected', if you will, with a concert in Cameron Park, Ca., US this coming July for 'BACA' (Bikers Against Child Abuse) rally. God willing this will be recorded and distributed soon after.



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