In early 1978 former Deep Purple and current Whitesnake vocalist David Coverdale released a follow-up album to his solo debut Whitesnake titled Northwinds. This time around Coverdale wanted to keep up the momentum he had just started to build up with the tour to promote the first album, using some of the same musicians he had worked with previously. In addition, that passion seems to be very much present in the tracks on Northwinds. Coverdale would later form the first incarnation of Whitesnake with the musicians he used to tour for the album.
Northwinds has a more blues rock type sound to it than its predecessor, though it still has some of the gospel and R&B elements the previous one did in certain places. You can hear the amount of soul and unfiltered passion from Coverdale's song writing and vocals. For a white British guy he sure has a hell of a lot of soul in his music. Half the tracks would later on be used as the B-side to Whitesnake's first EP Snakebite.
A little known fact about Northwinds is that it has a song that features the late Ronnie James Dio and his wife Wendy Dio as backing vocalists. This would be a song called Give Me Kindness. You can hear Coverdale's obvious gospel influence come pouring through on this one. With horns, piano, and powerful backing vocals that remind you of a sunny day it's hard to not get swept up in the moment of this walking paced tune.
Only My Soul is arguably one of the best songs David Coverdale has ever written in his 40+ year career. It's a soulful rock ballad that the man puts every last fiber of his being into. One of the coolest parts of the song however contains no vocals at all, but is rather just an interlude containing drums, bass, and haunting synth. Kind of raises the hairs up off of your arms and neck. When the chorus comes crashing back in from that however, it absolutely blows it all out of the water.
This is another one of those obscure 70's albums I'm a big fan of that in my opinion is deeply under rated. It's understandable why Northwinds isn't highly remembered by the general masses, but for those who take the time to actually pick it up and give it a listen there are treasures aplenty to be found. There is a great deal of soul, passion, and energy that emanates from this Coverdale classic. Definitely worth buying.
Northwinds, by David Coverdale receives 4 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
1. Keep on Giving Me Love
2. Northwinds
3. Give Me Kindness
4. Time & Again
5. Queen of Hearts
6. Only My Soul
7. Say You Love Me
8. Breakdown
Buy the album on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P2LL1M?ie=UTF8&keywords=David%20Coverdale%20Northwinds&qid=1455872978&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2
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