Snowy White And The White Flames: Realistic

Respected white bluesman does his thing.

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Snowy White remains best known for his early 80s tenure with Thin Lizzy – which included telling contributions to Chinatown – while these days he can be found riffing alongside Roger Waters. But he’s also been steadily making albums with his White Flames for the past decade and a half.

He’ll certainly never be one to irk the purists. White’s narrow blues alley is faithful to the likes of early idols BB King and Buddy Guy, while he retains the same purity of tone as another of his homegrown heroes, Peter Green.

Realistic is a solid enough ensemble piece, veering from syncopated rhythms (Towards Higher Ground) to soft rock (Ongoing…) and soulful blues (Long Way Out Pts 1 & 2).

But he’s certainly no singer, all of which makes this one for hardcore disciples only.

Rob Hughes

Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2008, and sister title Prog since its inception in 2009. Regular contributor to Uncut magazine for over 20 years. Other clients include Word magazine, Record Collector, The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Telegraph and When Saturday Comes. Alongside Marc Riley, co-presenter of long-running A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. Also appears twice a week on Riley’s BBC6 radio show, rifling through old copies of the NME and Melody Maker in the Parallel Universe slot. Designed Aston Villa’s kit during a previous life as a sportswear designer. Geezer Butler told him he loved the all-black away strip.