Gillan, Ian

Ian Gillan is someone I've known for a long time having sung on numerous Deep Purple albums, as well as his connection with Black Sabbath. However, I've never gotten any of his solo or "Gillan" albums. No particular reason, it's not like I had a dislike for them, I just never got any.

Last year (2005), I got word that Ian was putting out a new solo album entitled "Gillan's Inn". What's intersting about this is that it was created to honor his 40th anniversary as a recording artist, so the songs on here aren't just all new material. There's covers from his past. There's a few Deep Purple tracks on here, but what's most interesting to me as a Sabbath fan is the inclusion of the track "Trashed". This is from the Born Again album that Ian recorded with Black Sabbath - an album that gets largely ignored now. Tony Iommi came in and played guitar on this track, so it was nice to see it revisited.

The rest of the album is pretty cool too. Since it's Ian it sorta sounds like Purple (what with the same voice and all), but the music isn't as "Purply", despite the appearances of the rest of Purple's band members in places. No particular track stands out, it's pretty consistant to me.

This is one of those DualDiscs - which I've railed on in the past. However, this one is by far the best I've ever gotten. First off, all the previous DualDiscs didn't play in the CD players in my home theatre system, or in my truck, so that's a strike against them. This one did. I don't know why - you would THINK they would all be made the same way, but obviously not. Secondly, the content on the back of this disc is extremely good. Normally it's a couple of music video,s a 5.1 mix of the album, mabe a picture or two, and that's it. This one has all of that, and then it goes into discographies, lyrics, commentaries by Ian on the tracks, etc, etc, etc. This is by far the most superior DualDisc additional materials I've ever seen.

If you're a fan of Deep Purple or Black Sabbath, then you should definitely check this out. Very highly recommended.