Still Burnin'

This reunion of John Batdorf and Mark Rodney happened in the XM Satellite radio studios for "The Loft," that station's live concert presentation. Recorded on November 16, 2007 the 11 songs from the concert are embedded on an album with two new studio recordings as bookends. Batdorf co-writes the new material with Michael McLean, and it is in the same style that fans expect to hear from Batdorf & Rodney, "Summer of Love" (not the Jefferson Airplane minor hit from that group's 1988 self-titled Epic release) and "Four Days Runnin'" slide perfectly onto this package, though Mark Rodney only appears on the first of the two new recordings, "Summer of Love." The live material doesn't have the feel of a concert, more like a live in the studio recording, a re-creation of some of the songs considered Batdorf & Rodney classics with no applause and studio precision rather than the ebb and flow of a concert hall appearance. It's a crystal-clear reworking of the duo's material together, commentary on each track found on the songwriter's web page (johnbatdorfmusic.com). For those who want to study the history of this pair that, along with Aztec Two Step, early England Dan & John Ford Coley and others in the second wave that followed Simon & Garfunkel's successful emulation of the Everly Brothers, this CD and those liner notes on the internet make for a delightful listen and read. A casual spin of the music has the "live" material blur right into the fabric of the new studio gems. "One Day" stands out and with Scott Breadman's percussion and Bill Batstone's bass and backing vocals it could easily be mistaken as one of the new studio recordings. A live version of "Home Again" is nice as well, bringing things full circle as the pair re-recorded that composition as the title track of a 2006 John Batdorf solo release. Batdorf & Rodney deserved more recognition, which this CD re-emphasizes, and though the laid-back feel here will please the fans a full concert recording in front of a packed house and some audience electricity will really help this solid material come to life decades after its initial splash.