I recently returned to my hometown of Milwaukee, WI on a brief weekender and the only redeeming moment I had in that wasteland of a city was digging for gold at the oasis known as Lotus Land Records. I purchased a couple pieces of local heat from an era in Milwaukee history that I only imagine may have been more livable than the scene out of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome that I saw last month.

From 1984 we bring you saxophonist James Dallas and his self released jazz fusion LP "Here and Now". James Dallas has been performing in Milwaukee for many, many years and still plays out with the Terry Sims band (Terry performs on this LP as well). But the real star of the show is the all but unknown guest, Adam Davis who wrote and performed vocals and synth's on the only boogie oriented cut entitled "Highway Lover".

"Highway Lover" is a stellar Boogie/Funk/Black Rock piece with a crazy fusion solo thrown in at the end to keep the track semi in line with the rest of the record. A crusty keyboard hook, raw as hell drums, dusted production and Prince influenced vocals make this one a total classic.

Totally uninteresting nerd fact: On just about all of the tracks on "Here and Now" they used two of my favorite synthesizers, the Juno 60 and Moog Liberation keytar. Both keyboards were discontinued from production in 1984 the same year the record was released. Is it a coincidence that everything started to go downhill after '84?

If you feel this joint like I do, grab a copy from Lotus Land as they have a very small grip of these left.

James Dallas - Highway Lover