English Motorbike Music

Lonely Road, the debut English Motorbike CD is now available.

Buy it now from iTUNES AMAZON.com or CD BABY

Preview Lonely Road
The song previews on this web page are from the TRU One Studio sessions that English Motorbike did beginning in 2004. The sessions were recorded with drummer Paul Rosen prior to Mike McCann joining the group. Later sessions had Mike on the drums, but for all these songs, the line up for musicians was mostly the same:

Billy Woodson vocals, guitar, and harmonicas,
Steve Gage guitars and vocals
Michael Riech bass, acoustic guitar, and 12-string electric guitar
Paul Rosen drums (vocal chants on Darkness Falls)

Don’t Mean a Thing to Me
Don’t Mean a Thing to Me is a story of the sycophantic behavior that many of us have dealt with in all types of relationships. Billy originally wrote this song for the King Rocker project that Steve and him were involved in prior to English Motorbike. It’s a straightforward rocker with a two-guitar attack and a descending melody on the verses. It has been used by EMB as their opening tune at live shows.

Ain’t Got You
Chicago blues man, Billy Boy Arnold wrote this song in the late 50’s and it has since been covered by the likes of the Yardbirds, Aerosmith, Jimmy Reed, The Blasters, and now English Motorbike. What makes this a favorite of the band is its start-stop arrangement. The song gives the opportunity for Steve and Billy to trade off solos on the guitar and harmonica respectively. Ain’t Got You has found its way onto the song list of every EMBs live show for the past few years and is always a audience favorite.

Jealousy
This song is slightly different than the other bluesier tunes from the TRU sessions. It is the most “poppy” song in this collection…but that’s a good thing. The lyrics talk about a person being blinded by a jealous emotion and being unaccustomed to it. Steve sets the middle of the song on fire with his “two” guitar solos. While recording, he wanted it to sound like two different guitars, one at the beginning of the solo, another at the end. Using his Les Paul through his Marshall JCM 800 and out of his HiWatt 4x12 cabinet (that was only firing on two of four cylinders due to faulty wiring) he pulls a searing lead out for the first part of the solo. Kicking in his wah pedal, Steve burns up the fret board with the closing phrases of the second lead. With a rocking solo like that it’s hard to truly call it a “pop” song.

Love By Myself
This is a song about one man’s (or woman’s) struggle to cope with loneliness in the absence of their mate. With lines like “…with thoughts of you and me, and my hand makes three…” basically suggests how the listener can cope with this loneliness. It’s a bluesy rocker that was going for that dirty, nasty sound that Steve delivers with a sexy, grinding slide solo as he slips and slides his hands up and down the strings pumping out moans of satisfaction. We will never be lonely again after this song.

Darkness Falls
The band has used a working title of "EMB Boogie" for this song, but the title "Darkness Falls" is more descriptive as the song is meant to conjure feelings of twilight. As we slip into unconsciousness there is the point where we are neither conscious nor asleep. This song resides this in that place of our minds. The only lyrics “I dig that time before I’m sleeping” tells it all. But when added to the ethereal chants provided by Paul, gives the song that other-world-ness, at least momentarily.
Michael provides the acoustic guitar and 12-string electric guitar for tonal coloring. His bass solo goes all jazzy and shit but then he brings it right back down into the groove leading up to Paul’s tiger-by-the-tail the drum solo. Steve takes his turn with a growling slide guitar solo that really cuts through and keeps the vibe on. Billy's harp solo comes in on the first chord change that really pumps it up. The harp solo leads to a short call and response play between Steve’s guitar riffs and Billy’s harp blasts just before the song ends. This song has been used as a closer for the bands live shows. May the darkness fall upon you.

All the songs from this session were written by Billy Woodson with the exception of Ain’t Got You written by Billy Boy Arnold.