Chet Vincent & The Big Bend - Celebrate (2016)

Tracklist

01. The Spins
02. Chain Smoking
03. One Night Only
04. Cut Us Down
05. Who Am I To Deny It?
06. My Way (I Just Can't Change)
07. She Gets the Best of Me
08. Fingertrap
09. What You Do for Me
10. The People I Know
11. Celebrate
12. Su La Ley


Chet Vincent has been kicking around Pittsburgh bars and clubs, playing in bands since he was a teenager. A regular fixture both at small open mics and at rock venues with The Big Bend, Vincent has quietly established a reputation as one of the city’s most dedicated figures. The payoff: Celebrate, The Big Bend’s fourth release, has the hallmarks of a career milestone, calling to mind early-‘70s Neil Young in its songwriting, with sonic elements straight out of Abbey Road-era Beatles.

The Big Bend has been a work in progress: The band’s first albums had a definite country accent. Then, in 2015, the five-piece produced Unconventional Dog, a certified rocker. That full-length got the band attention from local radio, from Triple-A station WYEP to commercial rock entities WDVE and WXDX.

Celebrate gives the band plenty of reasons to pop a few bottles (besides Vincent’s recent nuptials to beloved Pittsburgh country artist Molly Alphabet, with whom he also collaborates musically). The album shows the band’s range -- from the first discordant, psychedelic notes of album opener “The Spins” through the closing bars of the stripped-down, folky “Su La Ley.”

Far from flaming out, Chet Vincent & The Big Bend have spent years building up steam for this moment. Vincent is one of those figures who serve to show us that working hard and honing your voice really do pay off. Pittsburgh is already in on the secret of The Big Bend; the rest of the world is on the verge of finding out.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac]