Wild Rovers
Club Helsinki Hudson
October 20, 2013

Review by Seth Rogovoy

(HUDSON, N.Y.) – The Wild Rovers tour – a ragtag assemblage of Americana outfits – rolled into Club Helsinki Hudson on Sunday night, and suggested there is still hope for a genre of music that rarely lives up to the hype surrounding it or the forebears that loom over it. With rare exception, these rock singer-songwriters and groups – including Cory Chisel, the Candles, Invisibleman, and Adriel Denae – brimmed with charisma, talent, virtuosity, good songwriting, and the all-too-often missing element in would-be Americana bands – soul.

Every Americana outfit at some level aspires to be the second coming of The Band, the relatively short-lived group that basically set the foundation of the genre in its ineffable blend of country, folk, rock, bluegrass, pop, blues and, essentially, R&B. Far too often this last ingredient is missing, or unachievable, in bands that play a deracinated brand of country-rock or hippie-rock that comes out like cut-rate Grateful Dead or low-rent Neil Young.

That wasn’t the case with the majority of acts on the Wild Rovers tour, which basically consisted of a house band with alternating frontmen and frontwomen. The Candles and Adriel Denae, in particular, boasted tight songwriting, distinctive voices, and unique instrumental touches that set them apart from each other, and apart from others of their ilk.

Josh Lattanzi, frontman for the Candles, came across as a latter-day Jackson Browne in the best possible way, playing upbeat, radio-ready and hook-filled melodies with a rootsy accent. Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen were also in his musical DNA, and he was a reassuring presence as a leader – not always the case in this genre (even with the Band, which got away without a frontman owing to three incredibly distinctive, soulful lead vocalists). Lattanzi also shone on guitar, turning in a Walter Becker-like solo on one number.

Adriel Denae boasted a great, sultry R&B-drenched voice with a soulful keyboard technique to match. She’s as sure a bet as any to be the next Grace Potter or Amy Winehouse. Keep an eye on her.

Cory Chisel himself – the ostensible leader of the entire crew — is an engaging, amiable frontman, who kicked off his set with the help of surprise guest (and musical hero) Tommy

Stinson (of Hudson), a co-founder of the Replacements, himself an Americana icon, and in this case, decked out in a tight dress and introduced as “Norman Jones,” a knowing allusion to a special guest who did not appear. Stinson and Chisel duetted on Tom Petty’s “Listen to Her Heart” and “Dead Flowers” by the Rolling Stones, that other iconic Americana group that took a page out of the Band’s playbook.