Roogalator were dead, but why should they lie down? Going back to the tapes for their abandoned second album, band leader Danny Adler needed make a bare minimum of changes to transform it into his solo debut, and the title -- The Danny Adler Story -- tells you exactly what you're getting. From the opening "Ride With the Roogalator," Story is a bracing ride through Adler's entire musical history. The formative thrill of Chuck Berry's "Nadine," short-circuited through Wilco Johnson guitars and Attractions high tension, harks back to the first music Adler ever fell in love with; "Dream Rider" floats on the same soulful funk vibe that occupied his days jamming around the clubs of his native Cincinnati; and the rancorous "Zero Hero," Roogalator's final 45, shows how far he'd taken those role models in the years since then. Occasional sonic comparisons to later 10cc and early Steve Miller notwithstanding, it's an adventurous and often brittle set. In these days of totalitarian political correctness, a song like "Humanitation" could not even be written, let alone recorded -- set to a dramatic spiky reggae beat, the litany of racial nicknames that opens the lyric is eye-popping even when you know what the song's ultimate, harmonic message is. The aforementioned "Zero Hero" is equally hard-hitting, a spiteful put-down of such Dylanesque proportions that one still wonders who the song is about. (A clue -- "He's so pathetic and he really, really rocks.") "Movin' Easy," contrarily, is one of Adler's Midwestern epics, bristling with the smell of warm tar, the feel of the railroad, and the freedom of the turnpike in the early morning hours. The punningly titled "Trance It" (say it fast and think of buses) takes a similar journey later in the day -- even the guitars sound like car horns, and Adler emerges at the end of the album as one of modern Americana's greatest (and, infuriatingly, most underrated) dream weavers. This album's title, however, should not be taken at face value. The Danny Adler Story is merely the beginning of one chapter.

(by Dave Thompson, All Music Guide)