For whatever reason, I have had a hellacious time trying to come up with any history or information on MARK SLOAN, whose new album "Dreamer's Lament" dropped on the 25^th of February. What I have been able to deduce is that he hails from the state of Kentucky, writes a pretty good song, plays his ass off, and although I have never met a musician with this particular problem before, might be a bit of a control freak. Well... I have been known to exaggerate a tad. I have probably met at least ONE.

Opening the record on a solid note is the rocker "Mother Earth." The song starts off with a heavy dose of power chord guitar, and never takes it foot off the gas. In addition to some fine guitar work by both Sloan and Nick Jones, the song features a fantastic vocal. Mark's voice has a bit of an Ian Gillan quality to it, although a touch higher pitched. The entire feel of the song brought back the feel of some of the better late seventies hard rock bands such as U.F.O.

Next up, the very nice ballad "Walk Away" follows suit. Beautiful multi-layered guitar tracks built around solid lyrical content and emotion are the order of the day here, and the order is filled quite nicely. After only two tracks, I went back to the well, trying to find any more information on this guy that I could.

The title track, and third song from the release, "Dreamer's Lament" is another great example of a musician turning it out at the highest level. Sloan's voice on this track really cooks, and we are treated to another fine lead and solo from Jones. "Free" has more of a pop, almost EAGLES like country rock feeling about it, and shows some real versatility in the process.

One last song that I will cover here is the PINK FLOYD-ian (from the offset, anyway) "The Siege of Bastogne." This track alone made this record a success for me and has created an instant fan of MARK SLOAN's ability, both as a stellar musician and writer. I have rarely heard as interesting an independent release as this is, and look forward to finding out all I can about his work.