Lex Zaleta - Free2010

Hear The Track Here

If you have been around on the internet music scene for longer than five minutes, you'll know that here - as in RL - longevity is a bit of a problem. As someone once said to me, people are in and out like flies and I agree wholeheartedly. This is, and always has been, a very fluid scene. Consequently, there are few names that carry any resonance and those that do have one thing in common; longevity. One of those names has to belong to Lex Zaleta who, despite the Superman overtones, is a songwriter, musician and singer who I first noticed (I think) at the pre-Millenium monopoly widely known as MP3.com. Funny thing is that although I caught his music in glancing blows (as it were) I didn't really start taking notice of him until he picked up and recorded a track of mine (with his lyrics). Intrigued by that, I started to pay attention, and this is the next track that I came across.

When I were but a lad, I got involved with a band called the 101'ers for a while and loved what the lead singer did (with very little). That guy was called Joe Strummer and he went on to become a seminal influence with The Clash, and Free2010 took me straight back to that time and that singer. See, much as I liked Woody (as he was then known) I was aware that he didn't have the best singing voice in the world, but he put what he had to good use aided by the most energetic sense of rhythm I had ever come across. This track reminded me so strongly of that, that it took me a while to get past the past (if you see what I mean). So, what this lacks in either production (which btw is very good) or killer vocals, it more than makes up for it with drive, energy and commitment. Ultimately, it shows absolutely the best side of Lex's work, the songs.

When Lex says he's akin to 'BOB DYLAN meets TOM PETTY, ERIC ANDERSEN, and WEIRD AL - in church, I'd definitely be nodding in agreement because there's certainly a Tom Petty feel about the vocal too, and that's no bad thing because Petty too doesn't have a conventional voice either. So, while there might be some folks who wouldn't cotton to this because of that, there will be many, many others who will love this to bits for its vocal difference. Oh, and it rocks like there is no tomorrow (did I say that yet?). Lex wrote the song in tribute to the late Johnny Cash and his Folsom Prison Blues and was aided by Bret Alexander (yet another of those bell-ringing names) and I'm sure they feel a certain satisfaction at this diamond little track.

MUST HAVE old school rock