The Great Divide
Remain
Pacific Music Group
By David Pilot
 For the quickest
handle on the latest effort from The Great Divide, the last one
featuring lead vocalist Mike McClure before he saddles up for
parts elsewhere, fire up the hidden cut at the end. The scratchy
mono track brimming with old Camaros, Marlboro reds and memories
of cruising to Van Halen, Ozzy, the Eagles and Pink Floyd will
bring back the clearest of memories to those who partook and
maybe offer up a shade of the ambience for those who forsook.
Even the Scorpions and Night Ranger get a nod as hot sexy sultry
summer nights full of tingling promise come alive. Let all
of that sink in slow, then queue the album from the top. The
Cars-influenced intro wave of pounding riffs segues smoothly
into the Red Dirt country-pop the band has done so well for so
long as striding licks and pulsating bass grooves offer up the
sort of goodbye every relationship ought to culminate with.
So fly on
Up where you belong
You were always too good for me
And I don't wanna prove you wrong
Fly on
Scotte Lester and Kelley Green make this track work on the
strength of their rhythm electric and bass guitars alone, and
in doing so set a course that's consistent throughout Remain.
The McClure/Kennon Dosher penned "Lost In the Night"
follows similar musical ground, with a beautiful-but-you-have-to-listen-for-it
steel accompaniment thrown in for longing and seasoning. There's
a lot of wealth to sift through here, however. Where the title
track features a perfectly captured acoustic guitar lead-in that
offsets McClure's simultaneously throaty and nasal vocal (no,
I don't know how that works), cuts like "Gypsy Steel"
unleash the fury and evoke the blues.
The haunting is reserved for the ethereal and somehow relevant
"Other Side of Midnight" and the stellar "If You
Want It That Much." Ex-Groobees Scott Melott and Gary
Wayne Thomason wrote the latter, and it's here as the sole cover
on the last album from the Great Divide as we've known them.
Fans already missing McClure may find unintended solace in
these lines as the band begins touring with their new lead singer:
And it's coffee in the morning and whiskey after four
When it's out of reach, I guess I'm out of touch
But it can't be good for you
If you want it that much
The track itself cuts deep on completely different topics,
and the record's worth your money for this song alone.
Disparities abound on this album, yet somehow find ways to
mesh into a meaningful conclusion. The above-noted "Other
Side of Midnight," for example, comprises the simplest and
(dare I say it?) Nashville-est of lyrics. It stands out, however,
on the strength of tasteful production that emphasizes the pain
in the accompaniment. That sets the stage for a vocal effort
that's anything but mailed in, and somehow what sounds clichéd
and safe on Top 40 country radio here takes on a life and a vibrancy
that resonates in places you've forgotten you had.
Same paragraph, verbatim, applies to "If Not For You,"
one of the topically weakest closing tracks on a record in years.
But the Great Divide makes it work, and that's the secret to
both their longevity and their magic. When the mojo's brewing
not even the most romanticized and overworked of lyrics can stop
the flow.
If I were alone right now I'd be in the dark
I would have never been my best if not for you
There are interesting hints of other sounds and influences
sprinkled throughout Remain, starting with the Jon Bon Jovi-sounding
vocal evident in "Fly On." Dave Pirner's ghost dances
like a gypsy across "Lost In the Night" and "If
You Want It That Much," and it's Grave Dancers Union
all over again if you close your eyes and ignore the calendar
and the Black Gold Resistols. "Mary Hold On," meanwhile,
makes one certain that a vinyl copy of the original 1975 LP Born
To Run was lying around the McClure residence just waiting
for the needle that would unleash its majesty. Throw in some
Jackson Browne-style electric piano on the title cut and bits
and pieces of Tom Petty, ZZ Top and even Michael Anthony in a
place or two, you get the feeling that as they close out this
phase of their careers the members of The Great Divide want to
make sure everyone knows where they came from and what they're
capable of. Remarkably, given all of the influences apparent
throughout, they manage to end up in the same unique musical
place they've always been an outstanding technical group
of musicians with a lead singer who knows just what to do and
when. And most importantly, knows why. Remain offers
a fitting legacy to the Red Dirt band we knew while offering
promise for both The Great Divide and McClure as they forge ahead
separately from here.
www.thegreatdivide.com
Contact David Pilot at: editor-at-rockzilla.net
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