Todd Sharpeville-Medication Time
Todd Sharpville, Medication Time
available on Dixie Frog Records
Video releases available now, take a look;
New release;
https://youtu.be/OEdOWRAB5AQ
and don’t miss
https://youtu.be/H80op6av6RM
https://youtu.be/4mhyWzfhzi8
Medication Time conjures up thoughts of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, and Nurse Ratched, however this is the title of a long-awaited album, from Blues stalwart Todd Sharpville, where he explores a time 16 years ago, the stress of a child contact battle within a messy breakup resulted in breakdown and 2 month’s stay in a mental hospital.
Nine originals and 3 restyled covers, make up the album, including two tracks with guest singers, Sugar Ray Norcia, and long-time friend, Larry McCray. The album, recorded in New York, is produced by Duke Robillard, brings the best out of Todd’s voice which goes from one of warm ground coffee to a smoking, gritty timbre. The songs cover the full blues spectrum, soulful, slow burners, shuffles, and horn filled Orleans styled, sometime dark, sometime ebullient, and every shade in between. It’s life unpacked and shaken out.
Medication Time opens with, ‘Walk Out In The Rain’, your instantly engaged by Todd’s granular voice as the song sweeps in like a summer storm, ebbing and flowing. His guitar does some talking over the soundscape of rhythm and flowing organ. Its walking out, there’s no turning back, a superb opening to what is an electrifying album. Things get a bit crazy, no time to loose, caught behind the “Sunday driver”, just ‘Get Outta My Way’. A manic, impatient drive, with rubber smouldering riffs, sax blows like an intolerant car horn in this road raging stampede.
R’n’R rhythms underpin the proselytizing finger wagging and gritty lyrics, Todd preaches his, ‘House Rules’, she can always walk out the door. May not be very PC, but its a great groove, with wickedly chauvinistic, fun laced lyrics, an absolute hoot. That feeds straight into a duel with Larry McCray, trading lyrics, then duetting, ‘Brothers From ‘Another Mother’, liberally decorated with the sound of New Orleans horns. Released as a single with characterised video, the two gifted guitarists weave their sound as tight as a clan tartan.
Before stepping into the darker corners of this riveting album, I can’t overlook one of the “cover” tracks, it’s given a complete makeover, almost Dickensian, with a Fagin and Artful Dodger wanting, ‘Money For Nothing’, or maybe risk falling into dire straits. Sugar Ray Norcia, adds vocals and a mean harp to this Knopfler classic, that’s been roughed over with a bastard file, unmissable.
You could say the dark underbelly of this album, is really the essence of Title track, ‘Medication Time’, finding Todd submitting to incarceration, and drug regime. effectively straitjacketed, no Cuckoo’s Nest here, its palpably real, set out in a slow, moody, blues lament, strangely haunting, irresistible. No faucet to force the bars here, but it still breaks a few glass windows.
More sinister, but no less irresistible is, ‘Silhouette’, masked by shadows, the light on the other side calling to you, but you can’t find a way through, teasing but seemingly unreachable, there’s no release without an extended hand pulling you through into the light. I’m inevitably drawn to replay these.
I’ll close out on another “cover”, its wild, maybe a release, time to cut loose with a,‘Red Headed Woman’, brunettes are fine man; and blondes are fun; but when it comes to getting; the dirty job done; I’ll take a red headed woman”, Springsteen may have packed the dynamite, Sharpville lights the fuse, enjoy the fireworks.
It’s hard not to plough through every song, but you’ll just have to get a copy of this raw, visceral, album. Todd Sharpville albums are a rare, precious commodity, his growling voice and straight-shooting guitar are superb, A blue blooded rebel, who has tasted life at all levels, Medication Time opens the window on a turbulent time which took him to the precipice. An album that mixes pathos with humour, making this a stunning album, more addictive than cocaine? This is a drug you won’t mind taking.
Track Listing;
1 Walk Out In The Rain (Dylan/Springs)
2 Get Outta My Way
3 Tangled Up In Thought
4 House Rules
5 Brothers From Another Mother (featuring Larry McCray)
6 Medication Time
7 God Loves A Loser
8 Money For Nothing (featuring Sugar Ray Norcia)(Knopfler/Sumner)
9 Silhouettes
10 Stand Your Ground
11 Red Headed Woman (Springsteen)
12 Don’t Need To Know Your Name
Medication Time, Out Now, have you got your copy yet?
Words Graham Munn
