Mark Holley - Real ft Joseph Rodriguez

Hear The Track Here

Last night, after a break of a few weeks I spent some time in the chatroom at Mixposure during Mike-K's Saturday Night Rocks radio show. If you don't know about it, you really should check it out; always full of some very familiar names. Ok so there I was hanging out and a Joseph Rodriguez track came on, then the man himself came into the chatroom which got me to thinking... I first met Joseph over at MP3 Unsigned some time ago and now I seem to see him everywhere I go and therein lies the secret of making things happen online. Networking is the name of the game and this talented guitarist plays it well, with the musical muscle to back it up too. Ahhh. Hear that? That wailing sound? That's Mark Holley wondering when I am going to get around to talking about his latest track.

Right now, as it happens.

Mark Holley will of course be quite a well known name to regular readers because I have chewed my way through a pile of his tracks ever since I first reviewed Blink Of An Eye (June 2006). He is certainly a rock musician who can be relied on to deliver good material on a consistent basis, even if the individual tracks haven't always set me on fire. Real is the third collab track between Mark and Joseph and the pairing seems to strengthen and broaden Mark's undoubted songwriting ability.

Mark has a sure touch with classic rock themes and at base, Real is a neat reworking of a couple of good ones. As usual, the production is top notch as indeed is the arrangement and instrumentation. This time, however, the added bonus is the vocals really do work in this track, which isn't always the case with this musician. I can't quite put my finger on who this reminds me of but I'm pretty sure that Elton John may feature pretty large in the equation but may just because of the excellent use of piano throughout this very neat slice of retro rock. Definitely one of the better tracks I have heard from this artist; this is a well balanced, intricate track that grows and grows...

Excellent classic rock. Highly Recommended