03.07.07 | Hell Of A Singer
hell of a singer

If hell has a house band, then I’ve found it the perfect singer. And while he’s there, Ron Lasalle can take the rest of the musicians featured on Nobody Rides For Free along with him.

If the blues is the devil’s music then Ron Lasalle is its disciple. And it's not just the raw, feral Nashville Blues - which gets the album off to an explosive start - Got Love To Blame is sensual and steamy in a slightly sleazy way. It doesn’t just suggest danger, it oozes it from every sweaty pore of the song.

It’s impossible to say that Lasalle does much that hasn’t been done before, it’s just that he does it that little bit better than most.

Ron Lasalle is one of those bluesmen who were born with a raging fire in their belly and through a long career at the working end of the blues; he has added the experience to harness that fire.

Lasalle has often been compared to the likes of Van Morrison and with She Did Love Me, you can see just why. Ironically that happens to be the album’s least believable song, it’s slightly superficial and stilted. It’s the only time when you’re not quite sure whether Lasalle has his heart in it.

Contrast that with I Am In Love, on the face of it very similar, in reality they are world’s apart. One is a decent performance, the other is ripped from its author’s soul bleeding.

It’s neat and tidy to categorize Ron Lasalle as a traditional blues musician, albeit a very good one, but on Nobody Rides For Free, he has poured Soul, R ‘n’ B, Blues and Rock into the cauldron and conjured up a potent spell, one called ‘real music’.


Date review added: Monday, March 05, 2007
Reviewer: Michael Mee
Reviewers Rating:

01.13.07 | LaSalle Debuts #5 on Euro Americana Chart Joining Icons Eric Clapton & Tom Waits
Nobody Rides for Free debuted at number five on the Euro Americana Chart, a chart compiled by DJs, journalists, retailers, and promoters from all over Europe. Other artists charting this month include Eric Clapton, Tom Waits, Jerry Lee Lewis and Joan Osborne. To find some great music, check out the chart and the artists who made it on, and many thanks to all our European friends who loved NRFF and helped put it there!

01.12.07 | Salty Dog from the Land Down Under High on Ron LaSalle
So much great stuff this week I'm chaffin at the bit! New cuts from Ron LaSalle, Hiptones, Linda Ronstadt, Andrea Marr, Ryder and some real classic blues n roots from Eddie Boyd, Luther Allision, Junior Wells. You get the picture - hell yeah. . . .Check out the Dog's amazing two hour podcast! Salty Dog Blues N Roots, Melbourne, Australia (featuring the best Australian and world blues, roots, and alt country).

01.10.07 | NRFF Earns 4.5 Stars from Rootstime
Nobody Rides For Free is a beautiful album, in a beauty of a cover, from a musical chameleon who, in a brilliant way, brings his mash of jazzy, bluesy, twangy, soulful roots rock even to the album's hidden bonus track. **** 1/2 by SWA. Ron Lasalle & the East Side Rockers are eagerly awaited in Europe! --Freddy Celis, Rootstime (Belgium)

01.07.07 | Buscadero Commends NRFF
Five years after the beautiful debut of the album Too Angry To Pray, the singer songwriter returns with a disk that's rough and bluesy but full of richly textured ballads, solidifying its value. An album that mixes the moods of Van Morrison with the sounds of Dr. John, passing from soul to gumbo, from rock to the blues. --Junior Bonner's Choice, Buscadero Magazine (Italy)

01.05.07 | LaSalle drives with style into the intersection of blues and rock giants
On Nobody Rides for Free, Ron LaSalle goes down to the crossroads. Only instead of bargaining with the devil, he wrestles him and other personal demons—and emerges battered but triumphant, his soul intact and his spirit rocking for the ages. From gutbucket acoustic blues to sweet soul to Stones-worthy rhythm ‘n’ rock, LaSalle drives with style into the intersection of blues and rock giants. He proves he belongs in their company, then blows on down his own road--Michael McCall, Nashville Scene

01.02.07 | NRFF "Album of the Month"-- RootsHighway
LaSalle's rough, black voice is perfect for this bluesy collection. . . but it is the ballads that really make the record, bringing Nobody Rides for Free firmly into romantic, country-soul territory. I Am Love is an amazing song that, alone, is worth the price of the album. . .. The steamy Try to Trust Again is a soulful rock ballad that sounds like a seventies record while the rootsy She Did Love Me reflects LaSalle's debt to John Hiatt. Then, there is the intimacy of the beautiful I Still Talk to Angels. Overall, a record filled with blues-passion in every note that puts Ron LaSalle, an outsider by trade, in his own category where roots music isn't limited by the misused term Americana.--Fabio Cerbone, RootsHighway (Italy)

12.28.06 | Caru Lovin' LaSalle in Italia
After five years of silence, Ron LaSalle returns. His music is a cross between southern soul-blues and warm ballads in the style of Van Morrison. Beautiful voice, great sound, lots of dimension in the arrangements. Ron LaSalle is one of ours. Caru (Italy)

12.15.06 | Real Roots Cafe Predicts Bright Future for NRFF
The very sexy, jazzy, bluesy, roots-rock twang flavored music that LaSalle produces on the successor to 2001's Too Angry To Pray is, in large part, an extension of that album. All delicious stuff. . .authentic Ron LaSalle music with a bright future. Well done. --Jan Janssen, Real Roots Café (Belgium)

06.30.05 | Rock Review says, "It's good. . . and that's the bottom line."
Call it rock n' soul, blues, americana, adult alternative, or whatever you want. Regardless how you try to categorize Ron LaSalle's music, it's good...and that's the bottom line. Too Angry To Pray, released in 2001 on PHQ Records, is a spectacular blues rock album with elements of country and even some jazz for spice. There are a number of uptempo numbers, such as Another Day In Nashville and Bringing Love Back Home, along with some slower-paced tracks like Take Me Back To Texas and Just For A Second. The duet, I've Had It With Love, with Shawna Hulse features a dynamic chemistry between the two. It is difficult (and not really necessary) to pin LaSalle down to one specific genre. There are times he sounds like John Hiatt, others he sounds like Steve Earle, and still others he sounds like Tom Waits. One reviewer wrote, "Wolfman Jack couldn't do better if he'd collaborated with Bruce Springsteen." Too Angry To Pray is a gritty, heart-felt album, and well worth the addition to any diverse music collection.

04.01.02 | Too Angry to Pray "Hugely Enjoyable Record" according to MW of Americana UK
The opening spoken dialogue from Ron LaSalle’s new album . . .opens LaSalle up for scrutiny but does it in a way that’s about as unaffected as you could get – After that, if the Dick Smith album hints at John Hiatt, Too Angry to Pray is positively seeped in Hiatt and Bob Segar – both vocally (LaSalle’s voice is a dead ringer) but musically too. . .Another Day in Nashville and The Hard Cold Truth are the type of songs made for US medium-wave radio and sound like standards after just one listen. Not as much anger as you might expect musically then, but still a hugely enjoyable record.

01.13.02 | RootsHighway Discovers LaSalle Secret
But where the devil hid until today the good Ron Lasalle? Too Angry To Pray is the exemplary demonstration of the vitality of the independent Roots scene. . .The disc in issue is a true and just a small secret of rock the provincial American. . .with a paraphernalia of infuences . . like if the sacred fire soul of Van Morrison, the polverose danced country-rock of John Hiatt . . , the raucousness of Tom Waits and the rock essential of John Fogerty had found one new house to accommodate them.

05.30.01 | "Wolfman Jack couldn't do it better," says Ben Ohmart of MusicDish Magazine
Though black sounding, [Ron] also has that gritty vocal style of Capt. Beefheart, like an old timer who's lived through too much, lived too long, and knows what works, what doesn't. Ron isn't really Too Angry To Pray. He strikes me as a young blues man who has seen it all, and has picked out all he wishes to give a 2nd look at. The songs . . .sometimes they verge on the fantastic. Bottom line: Wolfman Jack couldn't do better if he'd collaborated with Bruce Springsteen. A little bit of heaven on a cold, blues night.

05.09.01 | "A bracing blast of Southern boogie and New Jersey soul," says Jim Ridley: Nashville Scene
Ron LaSalle's new CD Too Angry to Pray returns to the days when arena rock meant grand gestures, not self-pitying poses. It's a bracing blast of Southern boogie and Jersey soul invested with personal pain, pride, and passion, and LaSalle's surprisingly expressive bellow has some of the fervid intensity of classic Van Morrison. He also puts on a tent revival of a live show, which should draw some folks to the Acoustic Stage at 2:30 p.m.