Will Turpin - Serengeti Drivers
Gooey Records
https://www.facebook.com/WillTurpinMusic/

Rating: A

Fans of veteran Atlanta-based hit machine Collective Soul know Will Turpin as one mean Rock 'n Roll Bassist. People who stumble across Will's debut solo album Serengeti Drivers on ITunes or in their local cool indie record store will discover a decidedly different Will Turpin.

Will is an immensely talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist all on his own and Serengeti Drivers drives that point home admirably.  This album is far from 'Collective Soul Lite'. It bears few if any of the hallmarks of that band except for the fact that it is loaded with great songs played by musicians at the top of their game.

The lead track "Demons" begins with a driving beat and a piano riff that evokes Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" while the expertly synthesized horn section in the chorus brings Boz Scaggs to mind.

Things get a little funky with "All On You" with a head-spinning drum pattern on the verse, flowing into a 90s Rock radio chorus.

"Make It Home" is a lovely ballad helped along by a nice mandolin riff and beautiful singing; perhaps a far less cloying nod to Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly's "True Colors".

"Faith, Hope and Love" picks up the pace again with an insistent chorus backed by a shimmering guitar arpeggio and vocals that bring Toy Matinee and Kevin Gilbert to mind.

While Will may shudder at the word "Country" "On and On" features a country shuffle beat, mandolin and banjo, and even some Andy Griffith show whistling but, thankfully, no pedal steel guitar appears in the mix. Look for a video for this song down the road.

Side two kicks off with the album's heaviest song "One and Done" which pairs a heavy guitar riff with some serious piano key abuse. "One and Done" is followed by the dramatic, emotional and, I think, radio-friendly ballad "So Long".

We're not off the stylistic roller coaster yet as "Belong" ratchets up the funk quotient with a wicked guitar riff and bongo style drums. When the chorus finally takes over the song for good we get the closest thing to a "Collective Soul" moment as the song becomes a fist pumping anthem before finally resolving into a melancholy harmonium riff.

With repeated listening you begin to understand that Serengeti Drivers has a pervasive theme. It begins with a manifesto of sorts in "Demons" saying that life is a constant struggle between our kinder and baser instincts. The songs that follow tell different stories about that struggle.

If you manage to make it through the choices presented to you in your youth, and come through them with your soul intact, you begin a period of reflection where you make sense of what you've learned.

The final three songs of Serengeti Drivers serve as that reflection period, beginning with "Fallen Castles" a song about opening yourself up to give and receive the love of another.

The penultimate song "Those Days" begins with the line "When the curtain's calling, Time for one more song, Is it easy to play on, Is it easy to sing it all."

The final track, aptly titled "Final Score" actually provides a twist-ending to the proceedings. The title is not referring to a final tally summing up a life lived, but refers to that little devil on your shoulder urging you to go for one final score.

Bottom line: Serengeti Drivers is a powerful statement, both musically and lyrically, from someone you knew but didn't really know at all. On the first listen, the album may come across as a smooth stream of Soft Rock compared to Collective Soul, but repeated spins reveal a raging undercurrent of complex arrangements, thoughtful lyrics and expert players, laying down one irresistible groove after another.  I highly recommend it.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/serengeti-drivers/1377016255

Track Listing
Demons
All on You
Make It Home
Faith, Hope, Live
On and On
One and Done
So Long
Belong
Fallen Castle
Those Days
Final Score

By Eric Sandberg