Ricky Ferranti & The Rusty Miles - 'Rusty Miles'

I literally can't think of anybody to recommend this to.

"'Rusty Miles' takes you on a musical journey within American music and culture within it's twelve tracks, firmly covering rock, blues, country and a lot more," claims the grand press release. I've frequently said I don't read press releases until I've put the album on, because they can skew your perspective. I quote this one, because I was baffled as to what I was listening to… sure, there's a slide guitar and southern rock element, but it didn't sound quite right. That is probably because, like the name Ricky Ferranti suggests, Ricky is not Texan, not Southern, not even American. He's Italian, just like everybody else on the album.

As a result, we have here an album that, in its efforts to embrace American music and culture, is about as authentic as a Chinese Elvis impersonator. The title track highlights a few common flaws… Ricky's voice isn't great, and the chorus is particularly poor… not helped by nonsensical lyrics such as "There's a road I want to walk/There's a road, a rusty road". I don't think asphalt rusts, but that's the least of my problems right now!



Perhaps aware of his vocal limitations, multi instrumentalist Ricky passes the microphone over on several tracks, although there didn't seem to be a better singer in the vicinity. 'Don't Stop' features a rather whiny lead from Josh Zighetti, sounding at times like a poor man's Klaus Meine. 'Keep On' has a more authentic country sound and a better vocal from Marcello Salcuni, until he tries to sing a little higher on what I think is supposed to be the chorus. Again, more vexing lyrics are offered in the form of "I don't care of neighbourhood, I don't care of what you choosed". And it only gets worse.

Suffice to say, I struggled to get through this album repeatedly in order to review it for the good people of Fireworks. I have no idea who this album is for - is there a collection of Italians who want some authentic American country rock, but would rather have it done badly from some of their countrymen than by established American acts? Are there any Americans, bored with the likes of .38 Special and Lynyrd Skynyrd, desperately hoping for some Italians to provide a bizarre take on the genre? No, I thought not.

I literally can't think of anybody to recommend this to.

James Gaden