Classic rock sound: Tuk Smith & the Restless Hearts - Take The Long Way / Ballad Of A Misspent Youth

[highplainsdem]

The first video below is their new single, out today. Ran across that thanks to a tweet from Kerrang.

The second video is the title track of their 2022 album.

Articles on them, from Classic Rock magazine, Kerrang and Devil's Gate Music.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/6-things-you-need-to-know-about-tuk-smith-and-the-restless-hearts
https://www.kerrang.com/album-review-tuk-smith-the-restless-hearts-ballad-of-a-misspent-youth
http://devilsgatemusic.co.uk/review-tuk-smith-the-restless-hearts-ballad-of-a-misspent-youth/
http://devilsgatemusic.co.uk/interview-tuk-smith/

From the Kerrang review of that 2022 album:

Tuk Smith’s old band, Biters, were an outfit so skilled in rock’n’roll it belied both their young age and the decade in which they were operating. We liked them so much we put them on the 2016 Kerrang! Tour. That band may have gone their separate ways, but Tuk is one of those musicians for whom the call of this stuff is just What You Do. So, here we see him return, guitar still firmly in hand and restless heart still somewhere in America – and his current home of Nashville will do just nicely – on a hazy summer’s day in the golden age of the late 1970s and early-’80s, slightly less wild sounding than before, but no less like a man simply doing what comes naturally.

Riff-wise, he’s obviously not stopped listening to AC/DC, but the overall effect here is more in tune with the on-the-road romance of Thin Lizzy’s more melodic side, or the swelling, poetic radio rock of Tom Petty. The opening title-track throws in shades of Bowie stomp, as does Girls On The East Side Of Town, while Ain’t For The Faint takes a warmer tack, adding in some organ that could have come straight from Petty’s Damn The Torpedoes. Elsewhere, there's touches of Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and The Cars, both in sound and class.

-snip-

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Interesting

Has a Hair Metal feel (think Poison), but the guitars sound like 70s rock. The tone, the style are very 70s.
I like his singing style, too.

[highplainsdem]

2. So glad you like his band! I've listened to several other tracks they recorded, and liked all

I've heard so far.

They were scheduled to support Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe in a US stadium tour a few years ago, but the Covid lockdown wrecked those plans.

This isn't Tuk Smith's first band, by any means. Before he had the Restless Hearts, he was the frontman for Biters, and they had some minor hits in the UK. Before that, he was the frontman for Poison Arrows (NOT the Chicago band of the same name; Tuk's from the Atlanta music scene). And before that, he was guitarist and backing vocalist for the Heart Attacks. Both Poison Arrows and the Heart Attacks had put out some records, too, but had a lot of problems with drugs and alcohol, as far as I could tell from what I've skimmed so far.

Biters on Atlanta TV show Now Dig This, 2010 - Hang Around:

More from his 2022 album with the Restless Hearts:

[ProfessorGAC]

3. The Restless Heart Song...

...reminds me of Cheap Trick
The Biters tune is very 80s. Like the other one you posted, it's like Hair Metal with 70s
The middle one reminded me of Bon Jovi, if Ronnie Montrose was the guitar player!
The beats are very 80s, even 90s. So are the song structures, the production, and the chord changes.
But, it still has a decidedly 70s element because of the guitar sounds.

[highplainsdem]

4. Take The Long Way Home not only won Classic Rock magazine's new music poll with

8 new tracks last week - https://www.loudersound.com/features/tracks-of-the-week-january-29-2024 - but it crushed the competition, with 60% of the vote.

From the start of article about this week's competition (which includes the new Silveroller track - see https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034114387 ):

https://www.loudersound.com/features/tracks-of-the-week-february-05-2024

As a new week begins, we offer sincere congratulations to our old friend Tuk Smith – once of The Biters and these days leader of The Restless Hearts – whose Take The Long Way so dominated our last Tracks Of The Week competition that we feel almost embarrassed to point out that he accumulated more votes than the other seven acts put together. But congratulate him we will, as any other act would be churlish.

One of the other tracks was Mark Knopfler's new single, which is also very good - but I'm glad to see younger artists getting that much attention.