There was a time when I would have just walked on by an album like “Blood of a Wolf” by Vern Daysel as anything that stays so totally and completely within the boundaries of the southern rock genre would hardly be worthy of investigation. Or would it?
Times have changed and, with the music business forever stuck in reverse gear, a man, a guitar (and some beer) now seems fresh and interesting especially as no self-respecting rock musician dare call himself the same unless he has a notable degree of musical virtuosity in his skill set. Vern Daysel certainly does not lack virtuosity and, indeed, plays practically every instrument on this album.
The songs themselves don’t really matter as they could have been written between today and the seventies but they all evoke better times when beer, playing pool and dancing in basement dives was all that a boy growing into a man could reasonably want. The good times therefore roll all the way through this album with “Good to be Bad” and “The Devil’s Music” being the songs most likely to shift you from “lite” beer to the real thing whilst simultaneously making you pray for the return of the 8-track cartridge.
“Blood of the Wolf” will sound as good in a bar as it will in your pickup truck. Vern Daysel therefore deserves the thumbs up.