The Average White Band
were down to a trio consisting of singer/bassist
Alan Gorrie
, guitarist/singer
Onnie McIntyre
, and saxophonist
Roger Ball
on
Aftershock
, the band's first new album in six years. The threesome brought in a lot of session players, however, starting with
Alex Ligertwood
, who sang on three songs, and
Elliot Lewis
, who handled keyboards and programming, and including such friends as
Chaka Khan
and
the Ohio Players
. Producer
John Robie
, known for his mechanistic dance tracks, emphasized
Average White Band
's traditional
funk
sound without finding an effective way to update it, resulting in an album that was faithful to the band's heyday but did not address its career decline. ~ William Ruhlmann