Mike Trask & Mud Hill - Boots For Flying (Independent) Mike Trask’s debut record has a dodgy name and a worse cover. Beyond that, it’s difficult to be negative. Trask and his band play energetic roots and blues rock in a style which recalls early Bob Seger, Springsteen, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and (thanks to a voice which I’m currently using to strip paint from my doors) Joe Cocker in his pomp. As a songwriter, Trask is no storyteller, but he does get under the skin with both ease and regularity. “There It Goes” whips up an addictive groove, “Don’t Touch The Money” is the sort of thing rock radio should be all over and “Tryin”, with its spoken vocal and disjointed funked-up bass, could be a Minutemen track tidied up for mass consumption. Lead guitarist Mike Barnes generally plonks a meaty solo in the middle of the songs to round them off, and the whole thing rattles along with considerable panache. Great stuff. www.mudhill.ca Rob F. Next