Barry Goudreau is most known for his work as the guitarist and founding member of the legendary rock band, Boston, and has spent the majority of his career playing in a variety of bands with other artists based in the Boston area. His current band, Barry Goudreau’s Engine Room just released their second studio album, The Road. Even though this is only their second album, these guys have been playing together for decades and you can hear it in their music.
What I love about this album that is so different from their first studio album, Full Steam Ahead, is the wide variety of genres within the album. Their first album was pretty blues heavy, and this album has lots more different rock sounds, some power ballads, but still has some blues songs too.
Our journey down The Road starts with a song called ‘Love Will Lead the Way’. It has that classic early 70s, uplifting sound, and delivers a positive message, which is so refreshing considering there’s so much negativity in the world. Then we transition hot and heavy into ‘Las Vegas’. This song has more of an 80s hairband sound and is not only everything Las Vegas is about, but it’s everything rock n’ roll is about. We switch gears a little bit with the next song ‘Word to the Wise’. It's a powerful and grounded rock song with beautiful guitar work all throughout the song, but it starts off a little eerie and mysterious.
‘Rhythm Won’t Stop’ is the “live” song on the album, not actually live but has a live feel to it. Along with the live feel, it has great lyrics with a great groove that will make you instantly sing along to the chorus. It also features solos from some of the band members, which adds to the live feel.
Throughout the album, you hear these beautiful, angelic harmonies from this group of ladies that bring each song to a whole new level. In the middle of the album, these ladies step into the spotlight by singing lead on a couple of songs. The first, ‘Edge of a Knife’ has such a southern, country twang to it, so different from anything they’ve ever done. I absolutely love it, it’s so fun and it instantly became one of my favorite songs on the album. Their next song, ‘The Camel’s Back’, is the complete opposite. It definitely has a little bit of a Zeppelin sound to it and it’s more of an anthem, but that just proves that these ladies can do anything.
My favorite song on the album is the title track, ‘The Road’. It’s so bluesy and filled with so much soul, listening to it for the first time gave me goosebumps. In my opinion, this song captures the overall essence of the band. I also love ‘Old No.7’. From the harmonica, to the pounding keyboard, everything about it is a party song.
The album ends in a really fun way with ‘Love (Reprise)’. This song has the same lyrics as ‘Love Will Lead the Way’ but it’s a completely different version of the song. It’s really cool that you get two versions of the same song on the album.
Overall, these guys rock and this album lived up to everything I thought it was going to be. There were so many times throughout the album I would hear parts of it that reminded me of Boston, which I didn’t really experience with their first album. I loved it and I cannot wait to see what is next for this band!
Listen to The Road on their website or below: