From the Red Dirt Report’s 1/6/16 edition: “ALBUM REVIEW: Mick Rhodes & The Hard Eight – Paradise City (Hot Tramp Records) 2016

California rock outfit Mick Rhodes & The Hard Eight kick off 2016 right with a rock sound that is both a throwback and also very now.

What we got was Paradise City, a follow-up to 2011’s ‘Til I am Dust.

The instantly likable Rhodes and his rock band – with a healthy mix of country and soul – have about 50 years’ worth of rock influences on these 10 songs.

That pedal steel, from Rick Shea, sounds sweet and Stonesy on “That Kind of Love,” while the slinky/sexy “Whisky Girl” reminds me of 90’s-era Cracker.

The drum-happy opening track, “Married Girls,” has singer/guitarist Rhodes – a bona fide, smile-inducing pop-rock number has Rhodes – with a great rock singer voice – warning the guys: “Don’t fall in love with a married girl / Married girls run away from the start”

Sound advice! And the song is one of the first great earworms of 2016.

In addition to the Stones, Cracker and Tom Petty (“Last Summer”), I hear New Wave influences like The Cars on “Heavy Metal Heyday” which takes the perspective of a middle-aged mom driving the kids to camp and reminiscing about their youth, when they were “stone cold crazies.”

“Go to the Love” has an orchestral, wide-open feel about it – and in a very good way. And those horns on the very 70’s-styled “Since You” take you back!

Mick Rhodes & The Hard Eight are keeping good ol’ rock n’ roll alive with their accessible and fun sound.

Paradise City, released on Hot Tramp Records, comes out on Jan. 23, 2016.

For more information, go to mickrhodes.com.”

Link is here: http://www.reddirtreport.com/rustys-music/paradise-city-mick-rhodes-hard-eight