Old rockers never die, it seems, they just rediscover the blues. The final piece of the trilogy that began with 2006’s Grammy-nominated Bronx In Blue finds Dion (he of the Belmonts) in suitably gnarly form, investing a bunch of largely self-written tunes with both zest and purpose.
There’s a low-down greasiness to I Read It (In The Rolling Stone) and the Wild Thing-referencing My Michelle, although for the most part these songs are rooted in fairly perfunctory 12-bar stylings. Crossroads cliches abound on the Robert Johnson tribute Ride’s Blues, and both Johnson and Muddy Waters are covered on the medley Two Train.
That said, Dion rescues things with the climactic Bronx Poem, a valedictory salute to his former sidekicks the Belmonts, the early days of rock’n’roll and the formative influences that shaped him.
