Dion - New York Is My Home

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good album from a great man

Dion DiMucci is one of the greats of Rock & Roll.  He's probably less well-known than he should be, but he sang and wrote some of the greatest songs of the Rock & Roll era and has made some very solid stuff since, with some fine highlights - I've always loved King Of The New York Streets from his 1989 Yo Frankie album, for example.  He's heading toward 80 now, but he's still producing…well, solid stuff with some fine highlights.

New York Is My Home fits that description.  It is a good album of blues rock, with most tracks being twelve-bar in structure and with a variety of styles within the genre.  It's good stuff, and even if most of it isn't that distinctive or earth-shaking musically, there's some fine playing and singing here making a very enjoyable album.  For me, there are also two tracks which stand out as being pretty special: the title track, which is a tuneful, haunting celebration of New York City with an appearance by the great Paul Simon, and Can't Go Back To Memphis, the sort of swampy blues for which I'm an absolute sucker.  They are both very classy pieces of work and make this album worth getting on their own, I think.

This, in short, is a good album from a very good songwriter and performer.  There's a lot here to enjoy and some things which genuinely thrill me.  Warmly recommended.