Tag Archives: rock

CROSS COUNTRY DRIVER – The New Truth

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Over the years, Rob Lamothe has explored different musical avenues. Although best known to rock fans as the frontman with Riverdogs back in the 90s, his sometimes overlooked solo career has taken in elements of thoughtful singer-songwriter moods (‘Gravity’), acoustic sounds (‘Wishing Well Motel’), hints of Americana (‘Long Lazy Curve’) and even blues (‘Shine’, recorded with Craig Erickson). Since Lamothe is clearly able to turn his hand to anything and his solo career continually looked forward, his decision to record a brand new Riverdogs album in 2017 came as a surprise. However, ‘California’ was well received, even if the material sometimes felt like a massive step backwards.

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FIRST SIGNAL – Face Your Fears

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First Signal began life as a side project for Harem Scarem singer Harry Hess, but with the arrival of session guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Michael Palace and drummer Daniel Flores for the second record ‘One Step Over The Line’, the melodic rock band took on a little more of its own identity. It wasn’t until 2019’s ‘Line of Fire’, however, that First Signal finally found their feet, but with that record, they became far more than just an extra-curricular hustle – they were now a band to rival some of the scene’s greatest acts. That album even outshone most of Harem Scarem’s work since the mid 90s.

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ROBIN McAULEY – Alive

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Robin McAuley’s 2021 album ‘Standing On The Edge’ was unexpectedly good. With that release, the veteran rock singer not only managed to turn in one of the year’s best melodic rock albums, but one of the year’s best albums – period. Although McAuley has only ever taken a sporadic approach to recording as a solo artist, the record’s huge choruses and swathes of late 80s inspired melodies showed his talent hadn’t waned since his heyday, and if anything, it suggested his voice was stronger than ever. The following year found Robin moonlighting with hard rock supergroup Black Swan (also featuring ex-Dokken man Jeff Pilson and guitarist Reb Beach), which allowed him to apply his voice to a few chunkier arrangements on occasion. It wasn’t the kind of album that achieved massive worldwide success, but was well loved by the dyed in the wool rock fans who actually heard it, continuing something of a winning streak.

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JAKE SIMMONS – My American Dream EP

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Like many musicians, singer-songwriter Jake Simmons had great plans for 2020. The time had come to start thinking about a follow up to his ‘Shake So Easy’ LP recorded with The Little Ghosts, but by the time he’d hoped to resurrect the band, the world had other ideas and sidelined everything and everyone with a global pandemic.

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KHYMERA – Hold Your Ground

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Despite featuring no original members, Khymera’s fourth album ‘The Grand Design’ was a solid piece of melodic rock, and 2020’s ‘Master of Illusions’ was potentially even better. That record, although perhaps not up to the quality of the self-titled debut from 2003, showed how Khymera were able to steer their way through some great riffs and big chorus hooks, and they were still a great band under Dennis Ward’s guidance.

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