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Tony Spinner goes live, and he kicks it off with an excellent version of The Nightcaps’ old “Thunderbird”, which I first heard by ZZ Top, and Tony does it in true ZZ Top mode. This album, featuring 14 songs, was recorded at the Blues In Rhede festival in Germany. Listening to this I really wish I was there! This is really a powerful, energetic set featuring a bunch of Tony’s originals mixed with covers of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Ten Years After etc. Especially the explosive version of Ten Years After’s “I May Be Wrong” would be worth the admission fee by itself. The mix is dynamic, yet powerful with flawless playing and vocals. A live album where you really feel the live energy through the speakers! A must!

Janne Stark / Stark Music Reviews (December 2022)
 

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Singer-guitarist Tony Spinner became known as a member of Toto 's touring band from 1999 to 2010. He then joined Paul Gilbert 's band on his "Fuzz Universe European Tour" in 2010. The fact that in addition to these activities he has also built up a solo career has (sometimes) been somewhat underexposed. Yet he is already ready for his twelfth album, which was recorded live in Germany.

The Dutch contribution is significant on that album by bassist Michel Mulder , who was in the past in the Coen Wolters Band and can be heard on albums by Wolf Mail and Diana Vredenburg, and drummer Alex Steier, who, in addition to his work as a sound engineer in the Trinix Studio in Arnhem can be heard on albums by Jack Ellister, Duchamps and Wolf Mail.

The live album is neatly divided between own songs and the necessary covers. The album opens with a cover of the ZZ Top song Thunderbird , which is energetically and loosely rocking with Tony's biting and piercing guitar playing. Politics Man is a lazy funky grooving song with a lot of Hendrix influences in Tony's biting and vicious wah-wah playing. The funk remains present in the languid Knucklehead with the wonderfully loosely swinging bass of Michel Mulder and the stinging guitar of Tony. Even more funk can be heard in angular groover Mr. Mouse with a loose driving rhythm. The lazy scraping blues Tommy 2 Guns has a Rory Gallagher atmosphere, partly due to the razor-sharp slide guitar. That is also the case in How Long which also features Tony's abrasive slide guitar. With Lover Man we go the raw funky Hendrix direction, followed by a cover of Alvin Lee's I May be Wrong in which fragments of Ten Years After's I'm Going Home appear. Slim Harpo's Tina Nina Now sounds wonderfully lazy and funky and this is where Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman makes an appearance. Tony continues to scatter snatches of Classic Rock because in Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water can be heard and an unexpected reggae twist appears. Stevie Ray Vaughan's Love Struck Baby sounds natural in a “fresh from the liver” blues rocking version. Jimi Hendrix's The Wind Cries Mary sounds as it should be, languid, psychedelic and bluesy. The album closes with Steppin' Out , a song written by James Bracken and best known for performing John Mayall's Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. With Tony Spinner this song sounds loosely swinging with subtle piercing and ripping guitar work.

This excellent live album by Tony Spinner once again demonstrates the versatility of this great guitarist!

Peter Marinus / Bluestown Music (September 2022)
 

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Tony Spinner released "Official Live Bootleg" on Grooveyard Records in early September 2022. The fourteen songs are spread over a total of just over sixty-seven minutes of total playing time. With these facts you get your money's worth.

Recorded at the Blues in Rhede, Tony Spinner performed with his proven trio crew, represented by Michel Mulder on bass and Alex Steier (drums).

Maybe it's about this blues in Rhede. The songs in the tracklist consist of fifty-fifty original compositions and cover songs. Otherwise it is about numbers by Jimi Hendrix , James Moore , Billy Myles & Nathaniel N. Nathan as well as James Bracken , who also wrote songs for John Lee Hooker , Jimmy Reed or Memphis Slim .

Tony Spinner & Co. not only show what they're made of through their studio albums . On the present record it goes around and also reveals the live qualities of a Tony Spinner . It also serves the friends of the bottleneck sound and the sound of the album goes hand in hand with the high level of the performance.

In a very good mood, the mixture of own songs and foreign compositions, which are served in the track list one after the other, gets really hot. Of course, there are also moments of contemplation. So take a deep breath when it comes to "How Long", which is announced as a brand new song. Tony Spinner finely integrates his skilful slide game here. A great song from the album Down Home Mojo . The interpretation of "I Love The Woman" is also a real treat, which, so to speak, creeps along very deep in the slowed-down twelve-stroke. The people in front of the loudspeakers enjoy further slow blues with Jimi Hendrix' "The Wind Cries Mary". Climbing along the original, Tony fills Spinner, how could it be otherwise, this number with a splendid own contribution.

In the very first piece, the trio relies on the rock'n'roll inherent in the blues. Great album opening that puts you in a special mood. Tony Spinner revives this Rock'n'Roll again. Faster in its pace, Ten Years After 's "I May Be Wrong" is a rocking tune. It's just great how this groovy number then slides into "I'm Going Home". Highlights!

Tony Spinner doesn't skimp on the other cover songs either and pours his personal touches into the tracks. It's funky with a buttery Michel Mulders bass solo in "Knucklehead" and the mid-tempo grooving "Tommy 2 Guns" with a great slide solo comes from "Down Home Mojo".

For the final "Steppin' Out" a brisk sole can be put on the floor. The bass player begins another solo and immediately afterwards Alex Steier's brief solo effort is a real joy.

The entire album "Official Live Bootleg" is also a real joy. All the pieces of the puzzle are sorted together to form a perfect overall picture. The way blues or blues rock is presented here, it has to be. "Official Live Bootleg" is worth every penny of the purchase price. Stay healthy and take time for good music as a distraction.

Joachim 'Joe' Brookes / Rock Times (September 2022)
 

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Exactly what does Tony Spinner actually do? Haven't heard from him for a long time. When was the good man actually the last time 'live' in Germany? That must have been years ago. Thanks f*ckin C. In the summer of 2021, a sign of life came to light in the form of the studio album "Love Is The Answer". It was pretty neat and entertaining. But a hearty blues rocker like Mr. Spinner thrives on his fiery stage presence and the infectious, up-close musical experience that unfolds better in the concert hall than in front of the home stereo system.

Well, the now almost 60-year-old Guitarslinger luckily insists on delighting his starving fans with a brilliant live album. Apart from the fact that the man from Missouri recently had his blond hair sabered down to an age-appropriate short haircut, you don't notice his 59 years of age in any way. This hour-long live recording called "Official Live Bootleg" from the beautiful "Blues Club" in Rhede (NRW) is released on Tony's regular label Grooveyard Records and is not stingy with the ingredients that a blues rock afficionado needs to create a roaring blues to celebrate. Awesome guitar sounds, concise and biting, sometimes overflowing guitar solos, flawless vocals and a rhythm section that plays to the point and takes no prisoners. Pretty loud!

The Tony Spinner Band, which works with well-known companions Michel Mulder (bass) and Alex Steier (drums), serves us fireworks of boogie, blues and rock'n'roll. Up tempo, mid tempo, slow. The usual palette, but with just the right amount of pressure, vigor and pepper under the buttocks that it takes to put the record on again and again. Exactly like back in the late summer of 2007 with Spinner's first concert album "Live In Europe", which hasn't lost any of its appeal to this day.

Then as now, the enthusiastic American, who once played the strings at TOTO as Steve Lukather's sidekick, rides the waves that set off artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter and Alvin Lee a few decades ago . That's coherent and skillful, that's fun and leaves us with the wish that Tony Spinner might soon board our German stages again.

Frank Ipach / Hooked On Music (September 2022)
 

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