Best known for his work with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, guitarist & vocalist Ricky Byrd delivers an album that touches on a razor’s edge topic: addiction and recovery.A founder of the non-profit group Clean Getaway, Byrd puts together a collection of songs that honestly deal with addiction and eventual recovery, hoping that the messages in the songs will give hope to those enslaved to drugs and scraping by without hope.’
The idea is noble, and even better, the music and delivery with lyrics gives the message credibility. A take on the 60s pop hit “Kicks” gets modernized for rockers, while the leader’s voice and style hearkens to the band The Byrds on pieces such as “Better Days,” and Chuck Berry riffs get boogie-ing on “I Prefer Wakin’ Up…To Coming To.” A Memphis STAX feel is present throughout, especially with keyboard icon Bobby Whitlock, as on “LIghthouse” and the team gets bluesy on “the title track, while Byrd and his company of Bob Stander/b, Steve Holley/dr, Andy Burton/key take you back to the place of true healing, the church, on the sanctified “Broken is a Place.” Successful and inspiring on a multitude of lessons. A message of hope is always a welcome oasis in a desert of despair such as now.