Israeli guitarist/songwriter Avi Rosenfield’s latest album (released last month), features American singer John E Mendell. From South Jersey, Mendell’s own music is described as having “no genre limits, playing from classic rock, to blues, to country, reggae and more!” And much of that describes this album Instead Of Worrying. It is nice departure from Rosenfield’s more usual style that’s heavily influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, and other classic ’70s hard rock acts. this is more laid back in places featuring acoustic guitars, organ, congas, Wurli keyboards….all making a good listening set of 10 tracks of roots-rock, blues, country, …. Best pics include opener “I Could Be Wrong”, “Tell Me”, and “Lately”…. plenty of ballads here. Guests include British keyboard/Hammond player Nick Foley, Wurli player Gabro Jazz, bass players Daniel Swain and Chris Branch, and Tyler Chen on congas, among a number of musicians here.
*Below Avi Rosenfield talks about the direction of this new album, and working with John E. Mendel. John also gives a bit of his story and about making this album with Avi. Check out the links at the end.
Check out Instead Of Worrying here: https://avirosenfeld.bandcamp.com/album/instead-of-worrying?from=fanpub_fnb
Avi Rosenfield – “The album with John is very special because of the John’s singing, I love his powerful dramatic voice and it surely fits the character for the songs, which are more acoustic driven classic rock, more of a personal album. Inspiration I guess is from all the singer-songwriters of the 70’s, and among them Ken Hensley of course, with his special storytelling style. I tried to follow this path and suggested John these songs.”
John E Mendel – “Making this particular record was VERY fun. Avi had reached out to me after coming across my YouTube channel. We emailed back and forth a bit and he would send me demos of his songs and together we chose which ones I was going to sing for the album. I would record my parts over his demo recordings and he would send me notes or give me a thumbs up. At this time I was in between homes and I was using a friends spare bedroom as my makeshift studio for all of my projects. It took a while to complete since I was only able to get to the studio a few times a week and I had vocal surgery in the beginning of 2023 so I had a month or 2 of vocal rest. As far as my other works (I’ll send links too), I have my YouTube which I post here and there covers and some originals. I have my cover band JEM & The Vibe. We do bars, weddings, private events etc. And I have my original works out under John E. Mendell. A lot of which lean more toward country. I am working on a new album that’s about half way done. I’m an executive producer for a musical group called “Melladys” which has two albums out and we’re currently working on a third. I also record, mix and produce for various bands and artists.”
LINKS:
www.facebook.com/AviRosenfeldBand
avirosenfeld.wix.com/avirosenfeldband
www.youtube.com/user/AviRosnfeld
https://m.facebook.com/jemandthevibe
Muted Conversations by John E. Mendell https://music.apple.com/us/album/muted-conversations/1572774544
Outsider Rock 