A good album.

George Gakis has been described as the ‘Greek David Coverdale’, and listening to this album you get the feeling that it’s a badge he wears with pride, and also that he probably has a Whitesnake duvet cover and a cross stitch of Cov himself. Previously associated with his band The Troublemakers’ in Greece, his Perris Records debut sees him team up with a few special guests, which certainly explains the title.

The most obvious ‘special friend’ is Joe Lynn Turner, who duets with Gakis on the hard rocking ‘Street Of Broken Dreams’, whilst elsewhere we get musicians such as James Kottak and Boby Rondinelli on drum duties, or Greg Smith on bass, plus other people I personally haven’t heard of (sorry guys). In the end, though, it all comes down to the music, as special gusts mean diddly squat if they’re playing on shitty tracks.

As mentioned before, George Gakis is a bit of a fan of Whitesnake, and he seems to have taken that to its natural conclusion on this album, crafting ten tracks that take a cookie cutter to the Brit band’s back catalogue. What we have is tracks that, basically, would not be out of place if done by that band, and when they work, they work well. For example, ‘Days Of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is a fantastic track that echoes Whitesnake’s later years, and I’d love to hear Cov do it at some point, ditto the title track. On the downside, Gakis is no Coverdale, and whilst he has a good voice he doesn’t have the vocal range to do true justice to, ironically, his own songs. Not that he is bad, by any means, but the problem with doing this sort of material is that you will always be compared with the man you are singing like.

‘Too Much Ain’t Never Enough’ (even the title is a whisker away from Whitesnake) is a good album, and don’t think otherwise. It’s a solid, heavy, blues based piece that should bring the name of George Gakis to a much wider audience. After all is said and done, though, it’s certainly a flawed masterpiece, and whilst imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I hope George takes time to find his own sound a bit more for his next CD.

Alan Holloway