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RICHIE KOTZEN
Nomad
BMG Records

This latest RICHIE KOTZEN release is his first with international BMG who were committed to giving Kotzen artistic freedom to do his own thing. Thus, this set of eight songs on which Kotzen is the sole singer, performer (with small exceptions such as Dan Potruch who plays drums on "Nomad" and Kyle Hughes on drums on "These Doors"), songwriter and producer, is also a tour de force showcase for his multi-talents and reflects his long-diversified tastes and influences in a broad variety of rock-related genres.

Defying categorization, Nomad, the album, can roughly be divided into bluesy hard rock ("Cheap Shot", "Escape", "Nomad" and first single, "On The Table") and jazz fusion/funk-influenced ("These Doors", "Insomnia", "Nihilist") categories, with an occasional ballady influence ("This Is A Test") making an appearance.

While Kotzen's forementioned long musical history reflects the influences of all these styles on this album, going back to all of his solo work and on through his days with POISON, MR. BIG, to WINERY DOGS, and the recent (Adrian) SMITH/KOTZEN collaboration, his long-standing virtuosity on every aspect of musicianship, engineering, and production on this LP will thus come as no surprise. What is unusual is to have all the diverse styles on one album, and that is where the record's appeal will be a matter of individual taste.

That said, for Kotzen himself, this short and sweet set of excellent songs displays a welcome freedom that artists are rarely enabled to showcase on one album on a major label, and, in that sense, it is about freedom for both the artist and the listener.

Ultimately, Nomad is a tasty, classy smorgasbord for connoisseurs of broad tastes, with perhaps the only major deficit being the desire that it include another song or two.

4.0 Out Of 5.0