Southern Sons deliver some of the best melodic rockers to come out of the Kangaroo Isle are contained within these laser etched grooves.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Southern Sons
ALBUM: Nothing But The Truth
LABEL: RCA/BMG (Australia)
SERIAL: 74321115212
YEAR: 1992
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Australia
LINEUP: Jack Jones – vocals, guitars * Phil Buckle – guitars * Geoff Cain – bass * Virgil Donati – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Shelter * 02 Lead Me To Water * 03 Sometimes * 04 Is It Any Wonder * 05 Can’t Wait Any Longer * 06 You Were There * 07 Nothing But The Truth * 08 Still Love You So * 09 Wildest Love * 10 Can’t Breathe * 11 So Unkind
Background
Melbourne’s Southern Sons have been one of Australia’s best loved melodic rock exports during the 90’s. The addition of the talented Jack Jones to what was essentially their previous incarnation The State (reviewed elsewhere on this site), really gave the band that extra edge in terms of vocals and guitar playing.
Jones’ claim to fame prior to was playing in a Van Halen cover band called (Funnily enough) Hans Valen! His entrance into the band made the difference, and it showed, with a raft of songs making the charts from their self titled debut, as well as from this their second effort ‘Nothing But The Truth’.
The major difference between this and the debut is there is a helluva lot more bite and sting to the songs on this one. The debut, though good in it’s own right, seemed to me to be a bit watered down. There are some cutting tracks onboard here, still containing the melody but given that extra bit of zing.
The Songs
Southern Sons deliver some of the best melodic rockers to come out of the Kangaroo Isle are contained within these laser etched grooves. The opener ‘Shelter’ is sensational, Another cracker is ‘Can’t Breathe’ which is just that.. breathtaking. It opens up like a Toto song, but then Virgil Donati’s drums kick it into an urgently delivered piece of rock-a-rama. You gotta hear it, compulsory listening!
The Mark Spiro penned ‘Sometimes’ washes over with typical Spiro like brilliance topped off with Jones’ wonderful vocal. The single ‘You Were There’ was a top 10 single in Australia during 1993 and has that same ballad chemistry that a guy like Richard Marx was able to pull off.
The Phil Buckle written ‘Wildest Love’ has a Little River Band ambience running through it. Come to think of it, doesn’t Jones’ vocals sound a lot like John Farnham? But you knew that already didn’t you? A couple of tracks also sound as if they could fit quite nicely on the Among Thieves album too (reviewed elsewhere on this site), namely ‘Lead Me To Water’ and the rather modern sounding ‘Is It Any Wonder’.
In Summary
I don’t think you could argue that this album is a great representation of Australian styled melodic rock. In fact all of Southern Son’s stuff is well worth collecting just for the fact that Jones sings on it, and that his guitar work combined with Phil Buckle is literally ear-candy!
Southern Sons on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
