There have been many female vocalists that had power and gruff in the wake of Janis Joplin. Before her, you were hard pressed to find a woman who could scream and shout and rock as well as the boys. Janita (Jennie) Haan, lead singer of Babe Ruth, was one of these female vocalists. She sounded like she bathed her voice in whiskey and cigarettes and in the hard rock arrangements of their songs on their debut album, the cleverly titled First Base, her rough voice worked well. Especially in the lead off song, Wells Fargo, her voice is pushed to limit where in spots, it cracks and breaks. Some may find this unpleasent, but I find her vocal cracks sexy, you can really tell she's singing it from the gut. The band mixes deftly hard rock with progressive touches, like the string and brass arrangements of the song The Runaways and their one take, no overdub take of Zappa's King Kong. The most well known song is The Mexican, which combines guitarist/songwriter Alan Shaclock's original mariachi influenced music with legendary composer Ennio Morricone's theme to the classic film For A Few Dollars More. With all the progressive and classical influences, the album all takes them in and wraps them around a strong hard rock backing so to bridge both hard rock fans and prog heads.
Personal Favorites: Wells Fargo, King Kong, Black Dog, The Mexican
Review made by Blair Lucas / 2011
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