ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘The Rose of Aces,’ Cordovas Preach the Power of Music

Make no mistake: Joe Firstman is here to proselytize.

Firstman, the frontman and principal songwriter for Cordovas, asks an earnest question in “Fallen Angels of Rock ’n’ Roll,” the opening track of the band’s latest album, The Rose of Aces: “How many times has music saved your soul?” It’s a fitting line on a muscular song (one that’ll be an instant live hit), because if you didn’t already know from the Cordovas’ catalog, Firstman himself is a convert.

Cordovas (photo by Justine Molina @inertiafotos)

Firstman has been a passionate evangelist for American roots rock for as long as he’s been making music — since his early days as a musician in bands around his native Charlotte, North Carolina, to the early success and critical acclaim earned after moving to L.A. when Y2K was a thing. When Carson Daly made Firstman his band leader for his late-night TV show, Last Call with Carson Daly, the popular host only further enhanced Firstman’s versatility and vocabulary — two facets that would serve him well when forming Cordovas back in 2011.

For the last 12 years, Cordovas have borrowed heavily from their collective influences on four studio albums and one live offering, albums steeped in their love of The Band and The Allman Brothers, Bob Seger and the Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac and Jackson Browne. But these songs were never mere sendups; instead they feel like the next entries into this trad rock canon. That’s especially true of the songs on The Rose of Aces.

“I know all the roads from Memphis to Muscle Shoals,” Firstman sings on “Fallen Angels of Rock ’n’ Roll” with a musical backing that provides more than enough credibility. The song features harmonies from Kelsey Leppard and Lucca Sofia, killer guitar work from co-writer Cory Hanson, Tyler Nuffer’s sweet pedal steel, and tasteful pocket work from drummer Colton Stephens and Firstman on bass that carries it through. It’s a near-perfect composition (or musical gospel tract) that showcases excellent veteran musicians united by a common love and belief in what Firstman is asking. Fellow devotees, if you will.

From there, Cordovas paint with all the colors of their ’60s, ’70s, and ’90s influences with enough invention to merit their own section in the tapestry of great American rock and roll. The band sounds especially tight on the clever “High Roller,” serving up an ideal canvas for Firstman’s lyrical turns like getting “low down in the high roller room” and describing the moonlit “chemical clouds” of the Nevada night sky. The propulsive “Love Is All It Takes” and the somber “Last to Know” are further highlights situated in the album’s second half.

Most of the songs on The Rose of Aces land south of three minutes, showing how finely tuned and masterfully restrained the editing process can be for Cordovas. Despite how passionate Firstman and company are as missionaries, they let the music do the talking. And it’s impossible not to be changed in the process.

Cordovas’ The Rose of Aces is out Aug. 11 on ATO Records.