Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds, The Quireboys, The Dogs D;Amour, The Jacobites, Diamond Dogs, Keif N Mick when they were looking through the ‘Fingerprint File’ and some well-timed Faces. Come with me on this one folks. Slip into your favourite shirt, undo a few buttons..one more.  Pull on your black jeans and slip into a pair of your favourite cowboy boots or creepers.  Put some ice in the glass, pour a shot or two of your choice. Now ruffle your hair and turn the stereo up.

Right, let’s commence take off and let the Claws be your guides for the next thirty minutes. ‘No Connection’ certainly has a connection with all of the above they all share the same blood group and were fed on the same steady diet and it shows throughout the seam of this LP.

I always appreciate a well-groomed Rock and Roll record that’s borrowed off some of my favourite albums and The Claws have done that here.  They’ve not aped their forefathers or just ripped them off they’ve learnt from them and taken the lesson and put them to the correct use. The opening couple of tracks are quite restrained and not the Dolls struttin’ you might expect at all and by the third track, ‘Wastin Time’ they are cruising around the hood of Those Black Crowes brand of Rock ‘n Roll from the laid back groove to the underlying organ swirl but up from is a croaky well oiled vocal and a sweet sweet overdriven lead guitar.

Hailing from the City of Angels and fronted by the one and only Rock ‘n’ Rolla Chad Cherry (of the Last Vegas!); the Claws play from the heart. They exude confidence in what it is they’re doing and as a result, people who hear it will be delighted.

They have some time for a bit of harmonica honkin’ as they cruise down to the crossroads with this upbeat shuffle ‘Devil Of Choice’.  They’re not intimidated or put off by playing out a cliche or two like the acoustic opening ‘Ghost Blood’ with its more dreamy Hangmen like tempo complete with swirling keys and castanets. They do just cut loose as well like on ‘Stumblin Around’ of course it sounds like a morning after the night before no regrets tune but hey we’ve all been there.

Gotta love the harmonica honk of ‘California M.I.A’ as the band just roll around on a traditional twelve-bar groove but it’s timeless and classy so I’m on board.  I’m a sucka for some sloppy Rock and Roll and when its done properly then it hits the spot so its a bullseye for me from The Claws.  oh and of course they sign off with a slowey with picked acoustics and lush piano bombs and hell they’ve gone full in with rim shots and bottleneck – Amen brothers, I’ll raise a glass to you for a really cool album full of timeless Rock and Roll that hits the spot ply after play after play.

Buy ‘No Connections’ Here

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Author: Dom Daley