1) Down To The Wire
2) Down The Highway
3) Wild Onion Exodus
4) Oh, Rosemarie!
5) The Last Train Out of San Miguel de Allende
6) The Ballad of Lily Flowers
7) Werewolf Ryder Blues
8) Mr. Jailer Man
9) The (Not-So) Great Escape
Album Credits
All songs written & recorded by Gary Camaro
Recorded at Black Jackal Studio, Chicago
Produced by Gary Camaro
Executive Producer - Lemmy LaVaca
Tod Bowers - Bass on "Down The Highway" & "The Last Train Out"
Patrick Slade - Guitar Solo on "The Last Train Out"
Charlie Pierce - Piano/organ
Vito Salvatore Gutilla - Violin
Spencer Schillerstrom - Saxophone
Pico Johnson - Pedal Steel
Patrick Slade - Guitar Solo on "The Last Train Out"
Charlie Pierce - Piano/organ
Vito Salvatore Gutilla - Violin
Spencer Schillerstrom - Saxophone
Pico Johnson - Pedal Steel
"Outside the sun is up. The wind moves me like a paper cup. Down the highway" - Lyric by Boomer Castleman & Michael Martin Murphey from "Texas Morning"
Down To The Wire Music Video
Press Statement
The new sophomore release from local Chicago rocker, Gary Camaro sounds more like a travelogue than a rock & roll record. Though, it does rock pretty hard with loud echoes of escapism & romantic notions envisioned from sonic murals of the American Southwest.
The opening riff of "Down To The Wire" moves like the official pace car of the album as Camaro wears his love for Keith Richards open G tuning on his sleeve like a badge of honor. This IS Rock & Roll. And in the direction of travel, doors open on the right at Rock & Roll. Then, the green flag flies & the sound shifts into high gear as the pedal hits the metal on "Down The Highway" & the speakers roar out a mixture of burning rubber & fury. This song incinerates right out of the gate with blistering guitars & screaming beatitude.
And that highway departs, from the abhorrence of Chicago, Illinois to the O'Keefe landscapes of New Mexico in "Wild Onion Exodus". This song is Americana at its finest, packed tight with rollicking honky tonk piano strides & a pure southern fried fiddle that serenades over lyrical scenes of a land ever so enchanted, leading the listener back to Chicago's Northside for another fiddle induced country lament of the everlasting love in "Oh, Rosemarie!".
The Dylan-esque sounds of "The Last Train Out Of San Miguel de Allende" is a poetic jangle that journeys south of the Rio Grande in tribute to Neal Cassidy, the hero of the Beat Generation, his counterculture ways & the last place anyone ever saw him alive. As the record shifts back to the more pop/rock stylings of "The Ballad Of Lily Flowers" it becomes highway bound, once again, with hitchhiking lycanthropy in "Werewolf Ryder Blues" as the verses flow with gritty B3 organ heavy utopia desert panoramas & a haunting howl of the Clair de Lune.
Bringing this record to a close is the penultimate song "Mr. Jailer Man" that hears a sentenced man's begging pleas of western redemption, as the pedal steel cries, before that long climb to the gallows, only to jailbreak those chains into the heavy riff rock, grand finale of "The (Not-So) Great Escape" that sees our hero, once again, guitar solos blasting, on down that lonesome highway, into an anti-social, misanthropic & very bitter sunset.
With a lyrical prowess so full of piss & vinegar & heavy Americana riffs, that nod in tribute to the influences of Izzy Stradlin, Son Volt, The Georgia Satellites, Gram Parsons, Flies On Fire, Bob Dylan, The Dogs D'Amour, Jack Kerouac & The Rolling Stones...Gary Camaro has crossed the finish line & captured the checkered flag of Rock & Roll.
"In the Direction Of Travel" is not an album. It's a victory lap.
"In The Direction Of Travel" was self produced by Gary Camaro at Black Jackal Studio, Chicago from August 2020-June 2021. All songs written by Gary Camaro copyright 2021.
Gary Camaro is the self proclaimed Poet Laureate Of Ashland Avenue as well as the frontman for the Chicago Rock outfit, The Wabash Cannonballs. He records, does graphic design & abstract digital art from his home office, Black Jackal Studio. His first solo effort, "Wolf Ryot Star" was released in May 2020. In January of 2021 he formed The Transatlantic Blues Coalition. A remote recording outfit comprising of musicians from England & the US for recording blues compositions. The first effort from this group was in May of 2021 with the release of the single "Devil Woman". A cover song originally written by The Red Devils. Their next project is a Chess Record Tribute Album to be worked on the rest of this year.