Walter Egan - Walternative

Walter Egan
’Walternative’ (Red Steel Music) - reissue of 1999’s southern-fringed studio album with bonus tracks, including two previously unreleased studio tracks.

“More rich fruit from the bounteous musical garden of Egan. This is work of true quality and every bit the equal of Walter's much-fêted work from the 70s.”
9/10
By Andy Rawll

Although best known to many for his 70’s hit songs ‘Hearts on fire’, ‘Magnet and Steel’ and ‘Hot Summer Nights’, this peripatetic native New Yorker’s musical journey continues to the present day.

His 2021 album ‘Fascination’ is the latest of a long-line of independently-released albums which reveals that the steel of his songwriting craft remains strong and continues to provide a magnetic draw to his unique brand of new-wave-tinged pop-rock.

1999’s ‘Walternative’ marked the start of a new chapter in Egan’s career, as his first recorded solo work, in over a decade, after his parting of the ways from MCA in 1985.

Despite its low key production, this debut independent solo release is forged from top-grade song smithery and honed with the skill of a true music artisan. This impressive set of songs proved to be a fine way for him to preface the new millennium and this remastered and expanded version is vibrant and appealing.

Beneath the perfunctory portmanteau of its title and the low-budget graphics of the cover art, lies a work of true quality that's every bit the equal of Walter's much-fêted work from the 70s. Sparse, but perfectly formed arrangements, sparkling keys and guitar textures all inform this characteristically eclectic, yet cohesive set of 17 songs (including two, previously unreleased). The reggae backbeat and sunny harmony vocals of ‘There goes my girl’ is a perfect example of Egan’s skill of picking the arrangement and cadence that best convey the essence of a song.

Having relocated from the family homestead of Forest Hills, New York to Nashville in 1997, what’s most noticeable is the southern spice and country flair that permeate the album, exemplified by the perky Petty-style pop of ‘Land of the living’, the dreamy waltz of ‘The truth’ and the gorgeous ebb and flow of ‘The tide and the sea’.

‘Happy home’ reflects the fresh-yet-familiar irony that Walter would have driven through the Nashville suburb of Forest Hills on his way to the Entropy Recording studio from his new home in Franklin, half an hour south of the city.

The album credits state “all instruments and voices by Walter Egan except *Drum loops and some keyboards by (co-producer) Shane Gue”, yet this belies the collaborative Walter-nature of the album, with the other half the songs enriched by the co-writing talents of longstanding compadres including Billy Cioffi, Earl Shackleford, Maliboozer Dave Chamberlain, the Dregs’ Andy West, the Ozark’s Mike ‘Supe’ Granda and the Burrito’s Chris James.

This has borne more rich fruit from the bounteous garden of Egan, with the reissue’s James-Egan lead single ‘Beats the devil’ awash with fiendish surf guitar, the Shackleford/Egan ‘Strange love affair’ invoking The Byrds in full flight and the same pair’s propulsive opening track ‘Let go’ an infectious retro Buddy Holly-style stomper.

Yet, overall, it’s the pure Egan solo compositions that deliver the highlights of this album. ‘Vergin’ on tears’ is an outstanding mélange of the psychedelic darkness of Blue Oyster Cult coupled with the bittersweet breeze of Buckingham Nicks. The arresting left-field counterpoint of ‘The Bias Of Love’ channels the ‘Ghost In The Machine’ era sound of the Police, whereas bonus track ‘You’ll Never Learn’ burns brightly with a great Talking Heads’ new wave groove.

As the album title perhaps suggested in 1999, rather than introducing an alternative version of Walter Egan, it cemented his status as a bona fide independent artist as well as his newly adopted status as Nashville native and southern gentleman of quality.

Equally, there’s a strong sense of self-reflection in songs like ‘Goin’ home’: “…many years since I've been gone…when did it all slip away, how has it all gone so fast?”, as he contemplates his own life as his father’s son and his son’s father, poignantly concluding the sleeve notes with: “as we sons are ever deprived of the fathers we will never really known, even as we fathers become them”.

A highly recommended re-release of a spirited, accomplished and eclectic album by a native New Yorker from Queens, who became west-coast songwriting royalty and now holds court in the magical musical kingdom of Nashville.

MORE INFORMATION:

Walter Egan - official web page

Walter Egan - social media (Facebook)

Walter Egan - fan page (Facebook)

BACK CATALOGUE RELEASES
’Walternative’ is part of a series of expanded album releases, from Walter Egan’s much in-demand and long-deleted back-catalogue. This including: his ‘lost’ ‘Mad Dog’ solo album from 1985, his second Nashville-based independent release ‘Apocalypso Now’ from 2002 and a 1978 concert recording ‘The Meaning of live’. All tracks have been remastered by Bella Corich at Loudpaw in Los Angeles.

Each redux album includes previously unreleased bonus tracks and is accompanied by a two-track single with a previously unreleased B -side

‘Apocalypso Now’ - this was Egan’s second independent solo release, after he moved to Nashville in 1997. Originally released in 2002, following 1999’s ‘Walternative’, this is a more eclectic and perhaps less cohesive collection of songs than its predecessor, yet never less than satisfying.

‘The Meaning of Live’ - Recorded 1978 on the 'Not Shy' Tour at the El Mocambo in Toronto - full concert - 80 mins. Originally released on CD in 2004.

‘Mad Dog’ - album review (Decibel Report)

‘Fascination’ - album review (Decibel Report)

Visit www.walteregan.com or follow him on @waltereganofficial for the latest news.