Artist: Tesla
Title: “Real To Reel”
Label: Tesla Electric Company Recordings
Release Date: 6/5/2007
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 4/5

Tesla proved to the world that they were not your run of the mill Rock and Roll group years ago when they released the blockbuster “Five Man Acoustical Jam”. Combining reworked versions of their own material and some covers it was an album that showed that these cowboys of the modern day were truly some of the most versatile players that the Hard Rock circuit had to offer. This was during a time when more attention was being paid to those who simply added an extra can of hair spray to the mix instead of refining the Rock we were all craving. Cheap gimmicks and fanfare never applied to Tesla who always stuck to their roots and gave us classics such as “Love Song”, “Coming Atcha Live” and “Paradise”. “Real To Reel” finds the bands return to delivering quality music and this time around they bring out the songs that they felt were important to their own development as a group. The release is quite similar to that which was recently issued by Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw whose own album “Influence” offered fans an idea of how they began in an acoustic manner. With “Real To Reel” Tesla is going to show the world a little of the same thing but it is full amplified and electrical this time. There are some great versions presented and while many are dead on renditions of the classics one cannot deny that the bluesy rasp of singer Jeff Keith is able to make these tracks his own just a little. The great aspect of the release is the fact that it includes covers that many of the bands fans might not have ever expected of them such as the Temptations “Ball Of Confusion” and the Guess Who’s “Hand Me Down World”. Great tunes yes indeed but I am sure that the younger fan base only had a limited if any exposure to these songs as they grew up with the band.
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