Sunset Heights - Sunset Heights (1999)

Tracklist

01. Southern Star
02. Did I Let You Down
03. Meet Your Maker
04. Freedom
05. Medicine Hat
06. Tangerine
07. Memory Lane
08. Lucy Come Home
09. A Woman Like You
10. Would It Be Too Much
11. Drift Away
12. Marking Time
13. Body in Motion

One band that Sunset Heights often found itself compared to in the late '90s was the Black Crowes, and that isn't a bad comparison. Like the Crowes, Sunset favors earthy, gritty roots-rock, and also like the Crowes, they come across as a rock band with a healthy appreciation of the blues, as well as the great soul and funk of the '60s and early '70s. None of the songs on this self-titled CD actually have a 12-bar blues structure, but you can't miss the tremendous amount of blues feeling the Houston band brings to melodic, down-home offerings like Did I Let You Down, Tangerine (not the Led Zeppelin classic or the Jimmy Dorsey swing-era hit), Medicine Hat, and Memory Lane. Nor can you miss the soul elements Sunset brings to its guitar-powered rock & roll, which often gives the impression that its members are quite hip to the classic recordings of Ike & Tina Turner, Rare Earth, and Sly & the Family Stone. This album isn't innovative, but it's honest and often quite enjoyable.