Patti B.
"breakin' through"
Genre: aggressive rock/pop

Billi and Patti
"love and other 4 letter words"
Genre: acoustic country/rock

This is a 2 CD review. One about Patti B. and her band and the other about Billi and Patti, an acoustic country rock duo. Patti B. is the second part of "the duo". They also feature several guest musicians who play on both CDs. Florida based, Billi and Patti have cooked up some great music that this reviewer had a lot of fun listening to.

I listened to Patti B.'s CD first and here's the scoop.

Not what I expected I gotta say. By that I mean I was expecting folk or pop..BUT..This woman ROCKS! Hard and heavy! The CD opened up with a bang..."Lies" the opening number kicked into an almost heavy metal feel with the slamming guitars, the big cuts on the drums and then Patti B.s vocals just took over. A mix between Ann Wilson of Heart, Melissa Etheridge and the best of the rock singers out there.. Patti B. is THAT good. This cut reminded me of '80 rock and I love that stuff. So a thumbs up here. You go girl. Cool wha solo by Mikey Silbaugh.

Track 2 "Got my eyes on you" is a groovy number with a rock/blues feel AND guitar solos. Yeah. I like this number. Patti's vocals are pretty soulful on this one.

Slowing things down a bit, which is nice. Track 3 with a mellow intro and some southern tinged vocals by Patti. The guitar sound was sort of droney but it worked on this one. I would have liked to have had more of the cool keys later in the song, but hey... who am I to say? But lemme tell ya.. Patti sounds like Klaus Meine of The Scorpions at the end.. with the high end vibrato on the last chorus.. KEWL..

"Not Again" is sort of a standard rock tune. Same droney guitar sound, which by now is getting kinda old. Let's hear some variation Mikey. This songs is okay.. went by and onward to the next.

"Wake up my sleeping angel" -- this is a good song but again.. I don't care for the guitar sound at this point. I would have preferred something different but then again, I'm a guitarist and you know how we are. Picky picky picky. The kick drum is REALLY out there. I like it. Gotta keep that sound in mind for some of my sequencing. Patti again sings her heart out as she does on all tracks. Her bass playing is right on the money.

"Concrete Edgar" is a sort of standard blues progression. Well done though. Guitar solo is a bit forgettable.

The next three numbers all have a lot of definition, especially from the guitar. Nice to hear textures.

Musicianship: Well played by all. Love the vocals as you can tell by now. And the drums rock. Brian Moore is DA skin man. Patti's bass playing is grooving and in the pocket. Mikey Silbaugh's guitar playing is for the most part nice. I think he could have used more variations on the tones but overall it is okay.

Songwriting: The writing is fair to excellent, depending on the song. Some tracks just sound too generic to me but Patti makes it work nevertheless. ANY song she sings happens because of her.

Recording Quality: Recorded at Audio Images, Bradenton, Florida and produced by Mike Badalamenti, Greg Voorhees and Cat Silbaugh (any relations to the guitarist?). Good sound overall. Drum sounds in particular are well done. Love the reverb and space surrounding them. Some nice delays on the vocals ever so often. Makes it nice and concert like. It's a good sounding CD. Nice and big.

Overall: Patti B. is a kick ass singer who brings across the hybrid of classic rock with a bit of country and some soul to make the recipe complete. Love to see her live. A good CD to have in one's rotational arsenal, like in the car. Driving down the freeways and listening to Patti B... with a Starbucks. That'll get the adrenalin going.

Song picks: Lies, Got my eyes on you, The Enemy within, Love Screams