{"id":10024,"date":"2019-12-22T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=10024"},"modified":"2019-12-19T13:31:46","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T13:31:46","slug":"handsome-dick-manitoba-born-in-the-bronx-liberation-hall-mvd-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=10024","title":{"rendered":"Handsome Dick Manitoba \u2013 \u2018Born In The Bronx\u2019 (Liberation Hall\/MVD Entertainment)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Anyone who has ever visited New York has a story to tell about the city, so you can bet your bottom dollar that having lived there all his life Handsome Dick Manitoba has volumes of the buggers just filed away ready to regale you with.<\/p>\n

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Mantitoba\u2019s debut solo album \u2018Born In The Bronx\u2019 takes a dozen of these tales and adds a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll soundtrack (provided by al all-star cast) to truly bring them all to life, and the resulting sound is so authentic you can almost taste the New York City air. \u00a0Add in a cover version of P.F. Sloan\u2019s \u2018Eve Of Destruction\u2019 to the Big Apple pie and what you have is a 13 track album that Handsome Dick Manitoba has been waiting all of his life to release.<\/p>\n

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With it being 18 years since \u2018DFFD\u2019 and 29 years since \u2018And You?\u2019 I have to admit a Handsome Dick Manitoba solo record was the last thing I\u2019d expected to be reviewing as 2019 draws to a close. The surprises don\u2019t stop there either as \u2018Born In The Bronx\u2019 was actually recorded in Nashville not NYC, thus enabling producer Jon Tiven to draw on the local talent pool of Buddy Miller, Harry Stinson, Beth Hooker, Shannon Pollard, Chuck Mead and Donte M\u2019Shawn alongside the likes of \u00a0Mickey Curry, Mat Reale, Simon Kirke and Mike Shrieve who provide a rock solid backbeat throughout.<\/p>\n

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Opener \u2018Shelley\u2019 sets the tone of the record perfectly, a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll love story that shuffles its way into your heart on 6 inch platform heels it\u2019s a song that is instantly recognisable due to Manitoba\u2019s unique vocal delivery. \u2018Back To My TV\u2019 and \u2018Surfside\u2019 which fall either side of the faithfully reproduced run through of \u2018Eve Of Destruction\u2019 are for me the highlights of \u2018Born In The Bronx\u2019 both of them being raw blast of proto-punk that take the Sonics and dresses them up as Dolls. Likewise, \u2018Big Army Brass\u2019 is a one finger piano boogie bastard that will have you dancing all night long and \u2018Callie May\u2019 sees Manitoba\u2019s songwriting influences extend into late 60s\/early 70s Detroit for a truly riotous shindig.\u00a0 Absolutely breath-taking stuff!<\/p>\n

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After this \u2018The Cooker & The Hit\u2019 treads more of a bluesy path whilst \u2018Thicker Than Blood\u2019 could very well be a song written for a certain Mr Springsteen, and then there\u2019s the title track which saunters in like The Thin White Duke after spending a weekend missing in the Bronx in the mid 70s, and here Manitoba allows his storytelling to go into overdrive cramming as much history as he can into 3 minutes and 59 seconds.<\/p>\n

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Look I\u2019m not going to do my usual track by track run through here because there is so much to discover within the grooves of \u2018Born In The Bronx\u2019 that I\u2019d really like you to go and discover the record the same way that I did. It\u2019s a really up sounding set of songs that\u2019s for sure, and it\u2019s an album that deserves to be played in full and given repeat listens -something quite exceptional in this age of here today gone today one hit wonders.<\/p>\n

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With \u2018Born In The Bronx\u2019 the party really does start now!! So go out and get your copy and tell the \u2018Soul Punk King of NYC\u2019 that RPM Online sent you.<\/p>\n

Buy ‘Born In The Bronx’ Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Johnny Hayward<\/p>\n