Spice and The RJ Band - The Will

I just picked this one up on vinyl after being re-released by Night Of The Living Dead Records which is a vinyl only Italian label.Originally recorded in 2007,it of course features Spice,the original singer from the Spiritual Beggars who produced some of my favorite albums in their earlier days.If you are like me and think the Beggars releases have been lacking something of late then you may want to check this album out.This pretty much carries on from where Spice left off in the Spiritual Beggars.I have always thought Spice as being one of the all time singers,soulful,angry and full of power.This album carries on that great tradition that he established in the Beggars and the other band he was in "The Mushroom River Band".Spice also appeared in another band called "Kayser" which was a bit of a departure for him,they was much much faster and dirty sounding.This band was formed by Spice and Robert “Bob” Ruben who was the drummer in Kayser.On this album,the classic heavy rock roots of the 70's are still there from the in your face tracks like "Pick A Rose" to more mellow groove ridden tracks like "Don't Tell Me" and "Hold On".The best track might be the title track "The Will" which is a mini epic featuring some vintage keyboard sounds and some amazing vocals from Spice.Its interesting that Spice did all the guitar work on this record and his playing is pure quality.There is some major differences between this band and the "Spiritual Beggars",this band is a lot more lean and mean with more emphasis on being catchy than the Beggars.If you are a fan of Spice or his work in previous bands you will want to check this out.The vinyl is in limited supply and i am not sure how easy it is to get this on CD but its worth tracking down. 9/10