Jay Clark Band
The Time is Now
(Donald J Clark Jr)

The heavy stomp of “Not Giving Up” opens us up into the Jay Clark Band’s new release The Time is Now. From the outset here it’s evident the listener is going to be treated to some tight little guitar rockin’ ditties, with some good singable moments, and a slight 80s rock sensibility.

Dwayne Russell’s piano leading “Find a Way,” was well welcomed by the time it appears four tunes in. It’s a big country-rockin’ ballad, with a sprinkle of Train and a little Bon Jovi, but it’s as strong a tune as any of these ten. Actually, despite the heavy guitars from Clark and Rob Carlson, what makes lots of these tunes work for me (especially the rockers) is Dwayne Russell’s organ. He is the stand out in all these commercial ditties. Not taking away from the lead playing of Carlson, studied and subtle bass of Keith Westheimer and in-the-pocket drumming of Tony Ruscello though, this is a tight quintet to be sure.

“Stand Out,” stands out as one of the more rocking of the tunes, “Alive,” gives us our first obligatory acoustic guitar moment (a cool tune, with Clark maybe overdoing the vocals a bit, but the band playing with its darker and lighter sensibilities) and we get taught lessons of life on “Nothing Good in Life Ever Lasts.”

“Hell of a Time,” again mines some middle-of-the-road lyrics (my biggest criticism here is that beyond maybe “Nothing Good in Life Ever Lasts” the lyrics here don’t say much beyond the usual rock and roll tropes) has cool backing vocals, and cowbell moving it along (there is Russell again) and “Long Long Journey” ends.

Solid rock and roll stuff from the Jay Clark Band on The Time is Now.