“If Life Was Easy” review by Peter Makowski
Purple man gets the blues
Roger Glover is the invisible member of Deep Purple. His muscular, sinewy bass lines have graced the bands classic moments-In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head etc but somehow he has managed to keep his head down throughout their volatile history. On the outside he’s a prolific producer and has been a jobbing songwriter since the sixties where he worked down Tin Pan Alley with another jobbing wordsmith by the name of Ian Hunter. So it’s hardly a shock that this, his fourth solo album, is a credible, quality affair. Recorded on the hop, it covers a period in Glover’s life where he experienced divorce, new love, fatherhood and a series of other emotional but juicy topics for a songwriters pen. He receives some solid support from Nazareth’s McCafferty/Agnew, former Dio/Elf playmate Mickey Lee Soule, Southern Sea Level veteran Randall Bramblett and daughter Gillian. A midlife crisis set to music, it’s an honest, mature collection of songs that connect like a series of chapters in a rock’n’roll soap opera. Imagine Chris Rea, Greg Allman, Mark Knopfler and Norah Jones getting together and writing about the worst and best days of their lives. Yes, it’s that good.