Another Zamrock Moment

Salty Dog, from 1976

It was probably inevitable. After researching a bit about the Zamrock movement of 1970s Zambia for this short piece on Chrissy Zebbe Tembo’s RSD release, I got curious about other artists doing similar things. And before even leaving the Bandcamp domain of Now/Again Records I was listening to the one/only release from Salty Dog, which was recorded in 1976. And has just been returned to circulation by Now/Again.

Where Tembo and the Ngozi Family band dig into the basic three-chord recipes of Hendrix and early Black Sabbath, the three-piece Salty Dog goes wide — the album starts with a blast of relentless fuzz (“Fast”), and ends with a tender folk-rock meditation (“Sunday Morning Sunshine”). In between are image-rich fantasias (“See the Storm,” which is built on an interesting chord sequence) and a chanting four-on-the-floor drone in the style of early Aerosmith (“Down In My Shoes”). Clear, uncomplicated and played with true-believer intensity, this record celebrates — and then refracts — elements of classic rock in bold ways.