​James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro (from the album All Wood and Led

​James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro (from the album All Wood and Led available on Beachwood Recordings) (by Danny McCloskey)
It is ten years on for James Lee Stanley and his acoustic takes on the songs of Classic Rock artists including, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, and with his recent release, All Wood and Led, Led Zeppelin. Joined by Dan Navarro on the new outing, the pair revisit, reimagine, rework, and release a dozen cuts from the Rock gods catalog. Starting off the song cycle with the title track to 1973’s Houses of the Holy, James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro make each song their own. Listening to Led Zeppelin perform their own songs, the story and melody can get a little lost when competing with the guts and glory bombast of the beat. That was the appeal of a Led Zep full package. James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro civilize the songs, allowing the tales to unfold and the instrumentation to sparkle as acoustic strings accent the words and color the moods.
 
The fantasy born storylines in Led Zeppelin songs benefit from the acoustic touched versions found on All Wood and Led. A marching call and response is the beat for “The Battle of Evermore” while bright notes flutter over the sea shanty remodeling of “D’Yer Mak’er”, gentle hints of English Folk provide warm tones in “Over the Hills and Far Away”, and Jazz moods lay a path for “Stairway to Heaven”. The rhythms remain the same for “Fool in the Rain” as the vocals of James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro duet riding on Folk Rock beats. Balancing his cover versions and his own, solo recordings, James Lee Stanley guides his All Wood And series with an identical master craftsmanship touch that he gives to his own music. An island wind can be felt in the Latin rhythms of “Whole Lotta Love”, a Rockabilly shuffle puts down a beat for “Good Times, Bad Times”, lazy strums provide a dreamy mood in “Dazed and Confused”, and regimented notes make “Rock and Roll” a coming of age confession. All Wood and Led collects finely (re)tuned songs from the Led Zeppelin catalog, James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro hitting a stride as they exit the album in “Ramble On”.  (by Danny McCloskey)  
 
Listen and buy the music of James Lee Stanley and Dan Navarro from AMAZON
 
Please visit the James Lee Stanley or Dan Navarro website for more information

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