CD Review
Stevie Renner & The Renegades
Raining In My Heart
(V-Records Entertainment - 2004-001)
by Dave "Doc" Piltz
Review date: July 2004
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Guitarist Stevie Renner, leader of Stevie Renner and the Renegades, began his musical career in 1969 at the tender age of fourteen. In 1976, Renner got the travelin’ bone, spending fourteen years on the road working with such notables as REO Speedwagon and the Commodores. Then, in 1990, Renner made the decision to retire from performing, only to return to the stage in 2002 with a new band and a new blues-rock sound.
Remarkably, despite his long tenure as a working guitarist, Raining In My Heart is Renner’s first recorded work; ever! The eleven songs on Raining In My Heart include six original guitar heavy tunes, mixed with four classic covers translated into a blues-rock format, an interesting cover of the traditional song “Green Sleaves” and an Ojibwe offering entitled “Prayer for Rain.”
Renner’s guitar is ever present on all tracks, with the influences of the past (Muddy Waters & Freddie King), coupled with the more contemporary sounds of Jimmy Thackery and the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan. Highlights on Raining In My Heart include an excellent rendition of Freddie King’s “Hide-a-way”; a very nice (albeit brief) treatment of “Green Sleaves”; and an extended, guitar-laced version of the Mel London classic made famous by Junior Wells, “Messin’ With The Kid.”
Among the originals, the extended versions of Renner’s tunes, “Lovesick Blues” and “Stone Cold Groove”, are particularly entertaining, revealing the talents of Stevie Renner as a songwriter and guitarist. The opening number, “Prayer for Rain,” written by Little Joe Ehler and Daryl Pelly (members of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe), lends a unique cultural and spiritual element to the recording.
Anyone interested in experiencing to some hard edged blues-rock will find Stevie Renner and the Renegades CD, Raining In My Heart, an entertaining listen. To learn more about this Twin Cities guitarist and/or to pick up a copy of Raining In My Heart, visit Renner’s website at www.stevierenner.com.
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