Wino

Adrift

Exile on Mainstream 2011

St. Vitus' mastermind, Scott "Wino" Weinrich strolls in out of the wasteland with his sophomore solo effort, Adrift.  These nearly exclusively acoustic songs tread a calm area of his existence and drip with the years of road-weary experience.  Up first is the folk tinged title-track, an air of 70s folk rock circulates through his dry voice and the light guitar strums.  However, this free-spirited blues of I Don't Care echoes with his determined and rebellious voice that cracks with determination.  The blues rock really shines with the fiery licks of that electric guitar solo.  Sometimes though the song sounds a little on the naive side as is the case with Hold On Love which has an almost commercial appeal to it.  Wino's cover version of Motorhead's Iron Horse/Born To Lose is subdued and has an ominous feeling to it, weatherbeaten and jaded as the dust clouds are swept to the side.  Wino's voice is muted somewhat and the with the acoustic guitar sounding so sparse, it almost conjures up images of storm clouds gathering on the plains.  Suzane's song is a gentle acoustic instrumental, like rain lightly tapping against your window sill.  And the main riff on the track Whatever really reminds me of Eagle Eye Cherry's Save the Night.  But that's just me.  The one real exception to the folk/blues acoustic tracks on Adrift is the dreamy, distorted guitars that are layered for a somber effect on O.B.E.  Finally Green Speed jumps to life like a bear roused from slumber; pulsing guitar, scorching blues solos and intense vocals that crackle like electricity.  Wino's second solo album creates a feeling of dusty and jaded freedom through its use of acoustic guitars and a hefty injection of blues.  Like doom's version of Bob Dylan, Wino is a master craftsman whose bleary eyes and world-weariness haunt each song like a travelling folk singer of old.  Take a journey with him on Adrift.