Music Review: Greg Walsh’s New Ghosts – You Took My Soul but I Kept the Heart

9 tracks of music, eight titles (the wonderful “Meet Your Maker” has an exquisite Dink Pinkerman DubMix to conclude the CD) Greg Walsh’s New Ghosts offer 25 minutes of music. The drummer for Huck2 and Pop Gun is one of the finest tunesmiths in New England, and evidence of that is here. “The New Ghosts (In Requiem) opens with one minute and twenty-four seconds followed quickly by the radio nugget “Counting Down to Zero(From 1) which is mastered here by Dave Locke, though you can hear a Rob Fraboni mastered earlier version on Boston Rock and Roll Anthology #21. David Minehan engineered and produced, with Greg Walsh co-mixing with Minehan. The powerful “Mr. Fix It” – another tune that got attention on radio worldwide – follows, with the first of two “Meet Your Maker” tracks, making for a solid three tracks (2, 3, and 4) which are driving, mesmerizing and all memorable. From Brit-Pop to New Wave and a dash of Procol Harum, “Meet Your Maker” is an amazing cozmic delight. Like Led Zeppelin referenced in Houses of the Holy, “you might meet Jamaica” (D’yer Maker inspired by Rosie and the Originals “Angel Baby,”, though the Zep track, musically, has no relation to this other than the Lady Mondegreen misheard lyric that is the title “Meet Your Maker” is an old New Models’ song that they never recorded, written by New Models band-leader Casey Lindstrom.

The next track,”Blanktape,” does seem to have some cousin-status to Unnatural Axe-man Richie Parson’s superb “Mix Tape” from Honey and Tears (2014.) Parsons being a colleague of Minehan, with a nice nod to the Buzzcocks, it is rocking.

“Tomorrow in High School” is chock full of hooks with a stuttering riff and magical guitars over the chorus. It’s a keeper. Like Mark Farner/Grand Funk’s pop favorite “Bad Time,” with a little Mott the Hoople thrown in for good measure. “Trigger Happy” is a nice follow-up to “Tomorrow in High School” musically with cascading guitars and an urgent voice.

The “June Gloom” video got some attention in video form February 2022 and is included here. Originally released January 1, 2019, the song is officially 3 years old Greg Walsh on piano, drums of doom and lead vocal, Dave Minehan on guitar, bass and keyboards, backing vox with Jim Melanson of Pop Gun, Gretchen Shae and Stephen Murray the entire disc recorded at Woolly Mammoth Sound in Waltham, Mass. All concluding with the dub mix of “Meet Your Maker,” this entire CD is quite significant and deserving of your time and listening support.

Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, legendary writer Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and various other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a twenty-eight-year-old variety show (established in 1995) on cable TV featuring A-list celebrities from all walks of life….Jodie Foster, director Robert Zemeckis, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robbie Krieger of the Doors, Michael Moore, Suzanne Vega, director Duncan Jones and many more.

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