BRILLIANT AOR, better than everything done by Kevin Chalfant, and that means a lot. Yes, Two Fires and The Storm are fantastic, but this is PHENOMENAL !This beauty was requested by one of you and it’s a pleasure to be featured here at plotn08.org: “Phoenix Rising“.,
the album recorded by THE V.U., a project featuring Journey and future The Storm members. Originally recorded in 1985, the album was shelved due no label interest in releasing it. How they didn’t get a record deal at the time is beyond me, simply because these tunes are pure 1984/85 sounding US Melodic Rock / AOR in the vein of Journey, Survivor, Foreigner, etc.
Fortunately, Frontiers Records some time finally released this little gem for all us to enjoy. However, it’s out of print now so be prepared for expensive remaining copies.
How you can go wrong with the songwriting talents of Kevin Chalfant (The Storm), Stef Burns (Y&T) & Steve Fontano (Cher, Le Mans) and skilled performers such as drummer Prairie Prince (Richard Marx, The Tubes, Starship), keyboadist Tim Gorman (Starship, KBC Band) and Journey’s bassist Ross Valory.
This is a brilliant, exuberant, vibrant collection of AOR gems from the US best years (1984/86) in my humble opinion. Standout tracks in ‘Keys To The City’, ‘Dreaming Your Life Away’ and the show closer ‘So Long’, but heck, all are delicious.
This is essential keyboard-driven mid-80s AOR from the American factory, and your collection misses a fundamental brick without it.
01 – Who You Gonna Believe?
02 – Keys To The City
03 – One Track Mind
04 – Save It For Me
05 – Hard To Get
06 – If I Had You Back
07 – Walk Through The Fire
08 – Dreaming Your Life Away
09 – Somewhere Here
10 – So Long
Ross Valory bass, vocals
Kevin Chalfant lead vocals
Prairie Prince drums, percussion
Steff Burns guitars, vocals
Tim Gorman keyboards, vocals
with:
Josh Ramos (The Storm) – additional guitars
Marty Friedman – additional guitars
The V.U. – Phoenix Rising 2000, MP3+ FLAC
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