This Could be a
Wild Night

Ash Gray and The Girls is a 4-woman 2-man pop combo demonstrating wide-ranging savvy in the genre. Starting out in a Ramones bash-up, Your Gun is Out (not too Freudian!), they skip just a tad more mildly over to Lou Reed in Wild Night and along the way incorporate a decent amount of the Hollies, a trait marked throughout the CD. There's more than a little Spin Doctors and Timbuk 3 (the wimmens is a 4-piece corraled chorale, bubba) mixed in with elder Shangri-Las, Phil Spector (I Never Said I Love You), and Buddy Holly (Rock N Roll Record).

This Could be a Wild Night is a long EP, seven cuts, and Ash Gray is quite a competent guitarist and singer, neither half over-dominating, thus the balance for all and sundry is well maintained. Among the sessioneers is one Richie Ranno, whom many will remember from earlier years and the enduring cult popsters Starz (I'm guessing that's his killer solo in Fire Away—no promo lit or individuated liner credits, so I can't say for sure), and the whole thing hangs together with an oft informal air that forbids too much seriousness, keeping matters consummately teen-aged while incorporating large chunks of dead serious musicianship (catch the middle eight in "Wild Night").

Track List:

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)