Tony Stevens' Slow Ride - Re-Vamped (2021)

Tony Stevens (in interview above with Leesa Marie Benz & Tony Stevens at Pub 44 in New Smyrna Beach, Fl, USA) was the original bass player for Foghat, a breakaway from British blues rock band Savoy Brown that infused blues boogie with a metal sound taking it at one point to be the biggest grossing UK act working the US circuit with some 30m album sales.

For Slow Ride, he recruited former Foghat drummer Eddie Zyne (since sadly deceased, the band now with Eddie’s friend Dave Webster on the stool); Tommy Hall on guitar, keyboards, harmonica, and vocals; and former Clarence Clemons Temple Of Soul and The Livesays frontman Billy Livesay (slide guitar, lead vocals).

The recorded outcome immediately brings to mind the work of Brits Bad Company, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, and the US’s Edgar Winter and early Aerosmith; and, of course, Foghat itself.

Stevens sought to expand the reach of the Foghat sound commercially and ‘Re-Vamped’, augmented with some of Tony’s solo material, achieves this forging tight and intense, rhythm based rock front-ended by pristine guitar listener-friendly vocals. With Joss Stone’s Steve Gordon on production duties pushing for reach, the listening experience is enriching and exciting.

Band compositions are augmented by unique versions of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, Tony’s hero Pete Townsend’s “Stand Together” and Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” along with the song “Slow Ride”, written by Tony’s former Savoy Brown/Foghat bandmate, the late Dave Peverett.