TESLA 'Homage'

TESLA
Homage
Frontiers Music Srl

Rock!
Blues!
Soul!
Country!
And a new song!

When it comes to compiling an album featuring renditions of the most inspiring songs from a band’s illustrious career, Sacramento, California-based veteran hard rockers TESLA know how to keep their proverbial bases covered. They’ve certainly had the past experience in as such, having started as a covers band themselves during their early years in the club circuit before delving into the actual covers album routine at the near-peak of their career with 1990’s live effort Five Man Acoustical Jam which bore their faithful version of “Signs". They further continued the tradition with 2006’s eclectic-sounding Real To Reel; even longtime guitarist Frank Hannon has released two solo albums of covers material over the years. And now, adding onto their legacy of honoring the sounds that electrified their spark to become one of the current top hard rock and hard-working bands in the industry some 40+ years later, TESLA tribute their musical heroes by going back to their roots with a collection of covers honoring some of rock’s most timeless hits on Homage. It’s an album that only honors legendary artists but also provides an opportunity to showcase lead singer Jeff Keith’s vocal diversity. The album stands as a thank-you expressed through music, an offering to the iconic voices and songs that shaped the band’s influences and, ultimately, their own songwriting.

Indeed, while the choice of song selections featuring some of the greatest vocalists of all time, including Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Sam Cooke, David Ruffin, Etta James, and James Brown, might read like the songbook for the upcoming mandatory company karaoke party at first, Homage also includes additional selections reflect songs the band grew up hearing on the radio and on their turntables, including LYNYRD SKYNYRD, QUEEN, SUPERTRAMP, CCR and Bob Seger, not to mention a rare moment of a new original number in the form of the earnest-sounding “Never Alone”. Another added bonus is a new version of the CLIMAX BLUES BAND’s “I Love You” (formerly from Real To Reel) which they also released as another teaser single and video.

Getting the most obvious song choices out of the way on Homage, TESLA were born to cover “Spread Your Wings”, “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew” and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?". And they really should have covered all of these aforementioned and respective QUEEN, SKYNYRD and CCR songs eons ago, but their versions here sound just as musically authentic as the originals. Jeff Keith can easily sing these songs with relative ease, but it’s his renditions of Motown classics such as “Bring It On Home To Me”, “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “I Wish It Would Rain” that are the real ear-catching tracks on the whole album, especially with the jazz crooning swagger of the former immediately following the Southern slow-blues slide groove of “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew”. And while covering the Godfather Of Soul with fiery bravado can pose a challenge to many, TESLA answer that call firmly with a decent performance of “I Got You (I Feel Good)” though it might require a few more listens just in case the mental image of Jeff attempting James Brown’s famous leg splits persists after the first listen. For even more genuine-sounding authenticity, the production on Homage itself even sounds like a fresh vinyl release that demands that it be played on a well-tuned turntable in all of its crackling rustic glory – just as how the members of TESLA themselves had encountered and embraced those same vintage sounds from back in the day and took inspiration to become the storied hard rock band of today. 

It’s never easy to curate the perfect tribute covers album when maintaining the ideal balance between pleasing the artist with lesser-known faves that may lack the power of their hits and pleasing the listener with well-known faves that risk complete burnout. Homage is as close as it gets to that same perfection as TESLA are careful enough with that mic to both cover the songs that are close to them while generating the right amount of supercharged energy to keep the power flowing uninterrupted. 

5.0 Out Of 5.0

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