The Rides Amount To Virtually Nothing

For all the star wattage present in The Rides you'd think something stellar was headed straight for your eardrums and brain pan. You'd be wrong. We're talking one forth of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young coupled with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, one of the county's preeminent guitar gods. Add in noted session musician Barry Goldberg to the mix and a legendary blues supergroup was hatched in 2013. Much sitting on bar stools pontificating how there's so much trash floating about the world but I could have saved myself four minutes and change of unwanted shoulder shrugging. As it stands I'd recommend the slow polished musical acumen of the players over anything sneaking its way into the dialogue box. The key strokes scream "Hey bartender, keep those cold ones coming. I can sense some serious grouchiness coming on." Its gait sounds just right for some barflies who floor everybody due to how disenchanted with their home planet they really are. I do respect how the veteran tonsil flashing of Stephen Stills interweaves with Kenny's astonishingly peaceful fret work and Barry's methodical keyboard playing. Drumming amounts to stale icing on this cake. It showed up to collect a paycheck but didn't stick around long enough to collect phone numbers from possible soon to be dear friends. So...a question to ask, unfair it would appear but valid at least for Stephen might be, "Are you slumming at this juncture or is this trio a vanity project too ripe with possibilities to pass up. Not a hell of a lot to tell tale about in the video. The bridge ushers in some serviceable guitar noodling from Mr. Shepherd but that thrill winds up overly ephemeral even for a universe littered with them. Perhaps some tech company of the future will adopt "Virtual World" in service of some hackneyed ad campaign promoting the latest flavor. I'm not saying this effort smacks of an overly corporate bent a la Neil Young's "This Note's For You" but I don't envision it as a long term reflection of what happens when you stick three embarrassingly gifted musicians in a room and see what happens when the cake comes out of the oven. I wouldn't think Kenny's at a career stage in which taking a load off would be necessary. Maybe the chance to share air with Stephen Stills. You certainly won't need to hit rewind to get the song digested the first go-round. Goes down softly, gets absorbed by the palate quickly. "Virtual World" is, lamentably an actual snooze for anyone who likes pizzazz with their blues poetry.