American rock n’roller Gilby Clarke is seemingly one of the eternal sidemen of rock n’roll, in the trenches every day defending the faith yet never really receiving the accolades undoubtedly due…

Even his solo albums, now seven in number with the addition of just-released newbie The Gospel Truth, haven’t really made the waves they should have done beyond Clarke’s large coterie of rock n’roll pals and smallish pack of fans. Lack of identity might have something to do with that – by the man’s own admission (or at least that of his PR ‘people’) he’s a mashup of Keef, Johnny Thunders and BB King, rather than really forging his own style or niche, and by the evidence of this new album nothing on that front is going to change any time soon. That said, nothing the man does is ever less than entertaining and that’s certainly the case here.

The Ending is one of the best things the man has ever done, solo-wise, and the excellent Wise Old Timer isn’t far behind. Elsewhere Dangerous Sin sounds like Ace Frehley fronting Cheap Trick – Frehley is a regular name that’ll crop up in your mind when you listen to this album – whilst the pure rock n’roll of The Ending might well have you getting your cowboy boots n’polka-dot shirts out of mothballs just in case this album sparks a renaissance of that thrift store rock n’roll chic…

Interestingly the already-released singles are among the less arresting tracks on offer her, save for the interest of the presence of Nikki Sixx on Tightwad and the excellent storytelling of Rock n’Roll is Getting Louder. That said you won’t find yourself skipping when they come on, and the feel of uniformity on display here – there really are no weak moments – makes this one of the best put-together albums of the year so far.

Penultimate track Rusted n’Busted is a late-arriving highlight, slipping into the same sort of groove forged by Alice Cooper on his recent Detroit Stories opus, and that seventies glam feel carries through to last track She Won’t Fight Fair; all in all then a pretty good album, but probably not the one to help lift Gilby Clarke into ‘the big time’, such as it is for a journeyman muso in 2021. Somehow I don’t think he’ll worry about that though…

The Gospel Truth is out now.