TAROCK MUSIC

RICK SHAFFER  •  “BROKEN SOULS”  •  A STONE COLD CLASSIC!

Five decades into his career, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Rick Shaffer, is back with his tenth full-length album, entitled Broken Souls.  Deemed as his most direct album to date, it was recorded partly in Holly Springs, Mississippi and Detroit, Michigan. Co-founder of the Philadelphia band, The Reds, studio work for Shaffer includes recording guitar tracks on a Marianne Faithfull album (Island); Hilly Kristal’s, Mad Mordechai (Stereo Society); Peter Murphy’s, Holy Smoke (Beggars Banquet/BMG); and Marc Almond’s, Fantastic Star (Some Bizarre/Mercury); as well as writing, producing and recording, Looking For Right, for the film, “Collateral,” directed by Michael Mann. 

Rick Shaffer is a heck of a musician.  He has been blasting through the underground scene for a while now.  His music encapsulates raw energy, harsh instrumentation and an infectiously ferocious attitude.  By turns intense and expansive, violent and sensitive, melancholic and euphoric, experimental and focused, Broken Souls captures an artist breaking through genre barriers, and discovering what he is capable of.

Broken Souls serves as a blueprint for any serious musician; refusal to be constrained by boundaries, rules or conventions, even within the context of your chosen genre.  It’s an album that challenges both the listener and the artist himself, as Shaffer takes a hard look at himself and the world that surrounds him.  Love Light opens the proceedings with an up-tempo rhythm and blues pitch.  Guitars and harmonica combine to create rhythmic mayhem, as Shaffer growls over the top.

Pale Highway delivers some retro-flavored psychedelic rock, with jangling guitars and slapping drums.  That Shaffer still continues to grow as a songwriter and guitar player, is incredibly evident on the crunchy riff-infused Just Ain’t Me,and the more expansive Same All Over.  Ably assisted by the Detroit rhythm section of Teddy Rixon and Stevie Carlisle, Shaffer demonstrates his visceral rock n’ roll chops, with intense, angular-shaped guitar voicings.

In-between the above-mentioned tracks, we find Station Man, which was written for a very close friend of Shaffer’s, and the moody grind of Desire Street.  Both cuts continue to showcase brilliant sparks of searing melodic guitar work and muddy, gritty rhythmic underbellies.  It’s a formula that Rick Shaffer has perfected over his many years of experience.

Shaffer’s songs just build in dramatic dynamicity and atmosphere, like the evolving guitar work, and passionate vocals in Like Fire that gets more acute and powerful as the song goes on.  Mr. Boston delivers the kind of emotion that greatly empowers the bluesy, swampy rock n’ roll Shaffer excels at.  Laced with dashes of melancholy, the grating riffs pound underneath the melody from start to finish.

Closing Time closes the album on a strong note with reverberating guitars and harmonica lines that strike precisely the way they need to.  Rick Shaffer’s vocals have never sounded as emotionally impactful as they do here.

By the time the track strains into nothingness, it seems certain that Shaffer has reached another musical peak with this album.  Buried within dark soundscapes and uplifting moments, Broken Souls weaves its path between feeling lost and broken, to wanting to uncover life’s silver lining hidden amongst its pitfalls.

For obvious reasons, we can’t call Broken Souls a stone cold classic just yet – that will be done a few years up the line in retrospect – but right now, the album warrants that title on raw intensity and emotional impact alone.

■ Rick Jamm, Tuned Loud, 8/13/20

Decades of living and creating music have led guitarist, singer, songwriter Rick Shaffer to creating his magnum opus. 

As the times change and the attentions spans of the ever changing listener gets shorter and shorter, Shaffer has found a way to cut through the noise with a concise and direct album “Broken Souls.”  No gimmicks, no mind twisting sentiments that make you wonder is the artist smarter than me or are they just saying words to say them and also, no skips.  Just raw emotion that if it could be translated into a book would be a gripping page turner.

The 10-track full length project from Shaffer is a mix of 70’s Garage Rock and Blues.  A combination that rarely peaks its head these days but also provides a breath of fresh air when it does.

The standout moments to me are when Shaffer is most vulnerable.  But not only in the lyrics but in the melodies he plays.  His craftsmanship sounds seasoned and the core of the music really speaks for himself.

“Oh when you told me this could be the end, you’d be lost forever in your silent bed” Shaffer sings on Like Fire, which is the best song on the album.

Jason Carter, Senior Editor, Straight Bread Magazine, 7/22/20

Rick Shaffer’s musical career as guitarist, vocalist, song writer, and founding member of the Philadelphia band, The Reds, spans three decades of critically acclaimed recording and film work.  Including thirteen Reds albums, film soundtrack albums, songs and score for TV and major/indie film companies and directors.  As well as, ten solo albums and three singles. 

Like Fire is the brand new single and is a beautifully composed alternative rock track. To fully express the song’s meaning, pleasant vocals make listeners pay attention to the lyrics.

Like Fire starts with guitars and catchy beat, and when the vocals kick in, they grab the listener’s attention immediately. The song gives listeners 4 minutes of enjoyment because of the whole mood of the track and carefully written lyrics, that makes this track the example of great alternative rock track.

To sum up, Like Fire is an amazingy catchy song that will stay on repeat for a long time.

∎ Sparkling Sound, St. Petersburg, Russia, 7/31/20

PROLIFIC GUITARIST, SINGER & SONGWRITER RICK SHAFFER

HITS THE MARK WITH TENTH FULL-LENGTH BITING ALBUM

When you look at his career and his discography, Rick Shaffer is one of those artists who seem to have lived multiple lives over time.

Five decades of critically acclaimed recordings and film works, founding member of The Reds, a Philadelphia band with which he released thirteen albums, including film soundtrack albums, songs and scores for TV, major and indie film companies, and directors; as well as, ten solo albums and three singles.

His studio work includes recording guitar tracks on a Marianne Faithfull album (Island), Hilly Kristal’s Mad Mordechai (Stereo Society), Peter Murphy’s Holy Smoke (Beggars Banquet / BMG), and Marc Almond’s Fantastic Star’ (Some Bizarre / Mercury), while in 2004 Shaffer was recruited by director Michael Mann, to write, produce, and record Looking For Right, for the film Collateral.

But fortunately for us, the self-reflective career of this never-resting artist seems to be everywhere but at its end, as the creative vein that Shaffer has cultivated, grown, and developed in fifty-years of performances, lived within, outside, and around the world of music, doesn’t seem to have run out.

Many would be willing to sign a deal with the devil in order to get even a little bit of the style, the grit, and the thrust that Shaffer can boast. But what Shaffer shows is precisely pure, naked, and raw panache. It is not something that can be bought or traded. It is a sensitivity, one that is human rather than artistic, that you can make yours and master only when you dedicate your life to something totalizing, like living and breathing music, just like Shaffer did.

Coming to terms with your wrong choices, telling your personal and musical life story, and your own mortality are a demanding exercise of balance that requires knowing how to walk a tightrope made of credibility, put in traction by genuine and pungent emotion.

But it is precisely on this uncomfortable jump seat, on which many would not even dare to climb, that Shaffer seems to give his best, bringing to the table what is probably the most direct album that this inspired artist has released to date.

Ferociously primitive, but never without moderation, with highly distorted tones that are never expressed with haste, Broken Souls is a multi-plot proto-garage rock project, in which each song, each element, offers something reminiscent of a sound from the past, something that made great the music of that time and of today, yet filtered through a modern prism.

The result is a compelling collection of melodies, guitars, and voices; loud sounds that fuel Shaffer’s urge to continue pushing his sound forward, while his peers, or even artists half his age, are creatively exhausted, vanished into thin air, if not forgotten.

Instead, Rick Shaffer is still here, reiterating how the power of rock and roll is still infectious; and this is all concentrated inside the 10 tracks of Broken Souls.

■ Gabriele Filippi, Nova Music Blog, Italy, 7/30/20

RICK SHAFFER UNVEILS “LIKE FIRE”

Rick Shaffer is our artist of the week, and his music, that we have just discovered, immediately convinced our ears and heart thanks to Like Fire.

Extracted from his tenth full-length album Broken Souls, Like Fire is a catchy Garage-rock track, with touches of blues: a moment of pure music.

In a world where music is made with machines and autotune, Like Fire as well as the full 10 tracks album, reminds us how it feels like to listen to beautiful guitars and melodies, infectious vocals, and poetic lyrical content.

The Further, France, 8/25/20

Rick Shaffer has released his new rock album ‘Broken Souls’.   As a founding member of The Reds, and years as a session guitarist, Rick released his first solo album back in 2010.

A decade later, and after nearly an album released per year, his latest release, ‘Broken Souls’, may be his best one yet!

The new album ‘Broken Soul’ has 10 original tracks.  Rick is the lead singer, plays guitar, bass, harmonica and percussion throughout.  From front to back, this album has a classic 70’s garage rock feel, with heavy blues influences.  Listening to the album almost gives me Rolling Stones vibes. The riffs are heavy hitting and melodic, while the music has a lot of depth.  It’s very well written, produced and all around is just a great album.  After a very impressive career spanning five decades, Rick is still showing us how it’s done and is in his prime!  Have a listen via Spotify, add it to your playlists, and be sure to give him a follow.

Nick Galien, Muzic Notez, 9/2/2020