Dylan Kirk – Havin’ A Whole Lot Of Fun, Live In Finland
Bluelight Records – BLR332402 [2024]
King Of The Hop – Put Your Cat Clothes On – That’s The Way I Feel – Looking Back – Sixteen Chicks – Papa Lou And Gran – I Dig You Baby – Call Me Shorty – Monkey Beat City/The Wild One – Junkie – Havin’ A Whole Lot Of Fun – Bad Case Of A Broken Heart – I’ve Got My Eyes On You – Down The Line – School Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Dylan Kirk is a young British piano wizard, gifted with a superb and confident voice, which makes, if you pardon the pun, a killer combination.
After a couple of studio albums for Foot Tapping and Emerald Records, Kirk took the occasion of a Finland tour to record a live album. The recordings took place over three nights, on December 13, 14, and 16, 2023. Having the songs selected from three shows guarantees you have the very best performance possible.
For this tour, the piano player was backed by a cast of stellar musicians from Finland, namely Iikku Riepponen (Mike Bell and the Belltones, Rockhouse Strutters) on double bass, Japi Saario ((Mike Bell and the Belltones) on drums and Antti Lehtinen (the Sun Connection, Hi-Speed Rockets, Fat Chance) on guitar.
When you have a piano-led rockin’ combo, it’s all too easy to compare it with Jerry Lee Lewis. Of course, there’s plenty of Lewis influence to be found here. But at the same time that would be a mistake, and overall that wouldn’t be fair to pursue this comparison too far. It would deny Kirk’s personality and style, and if you listen closely you’ll notice that after all, both artists have different musical approaches. While Jerry Lee positioned himself and his piano front and center when he performed on stage, being the only attraction, Kirk’s approach is more humble. I can hear you laugh from here, I know the being more humble than the killer is quite an easy task. But what I mean is that Dylan Kirk is a team player. This is not Dylan Kirk backed by the band, but Dylan Kirk with the band, and that changes the dynamic of the whole thing.
Hence, Antti Lehtinen has plenty of room to express himself, being an equal part of the show than Kirk’s expressive piano. And that’s a mighty good thing because this guy is very talented, mixing with ease and talent Rockabilly, Blues and Rock’n’Roll. Likewise, the selection alternates pure rocking’ parts (a storming version of Ronnie Dawson’s Monkey Beat City coupled with The Wild One), strolling blues-rocker (Johnny Guitar Watson’s Looking Back) with pure Rockabilly (Sixteen Chicks) and only slows the pace the time of a mean version of I’ve Got My Eyes On You. Needless to say that this album will leave you breathless.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis
