Luther Grosvenor - Floodgates Anthology (2001)

Basically this is a reissue of Grosvenor's 1996 album Floodgates, doubled in length by numerous bonus tracks from other junctures in the veteran guitarist's career. Grosvenor had done barely any recording since the late '70s at the time he came back with Floodgates in the mid-'90s. The album arose after he contributed a couple of tracks to a Peter Green tribute project; the record executive who'd gotten Grosvenor to participate asked him to go for a solo album. Indeed, the same musicians who were on the Green tribute album (Rattlesnake Guitar) back Grosvenor on this solo outing. It's average mainstream rock that sounds as if it could have been cut about 20 years before it was. That might excite somebody, but it's fair to say it won't excite many people; whether it had come out in the mid-'70s or mid-'90s, it's just another face in the crowd of British rock, with forceful playing and unmemorable melodies, singing, and songwriting. The bonus tracks include the two Peter Green covers Grosvenor did for Rattlesnake Guitar; three songs by a 1997-vintage reunion lineup of Spooky Tooth; a previously unreleased live 1974 cut by Mott the Hoople, "Here Comes the Queen"; and, most intriguingly, an unreleased 1966 song by Deep Feeling, which included Grosvenor and future Traffic member Jim Capaldi. Predictably, it's the Deep Feeling track -- an odd early psychedelic pop number with vibes, flute, Middle Eastern guitar, distorted vocals, and production by Giorgio Gomelsky -- that's the highlight of the whole CD.