Heaven & Earth – Heaven & Earth
HEAVEN & EARTH FEATURING STUART SMITH
HEAVEN & EARTH
Released 2004 (Black Star Records)
Track List:
01. Don’t Keep Me Waiting
02. Heaven & Earth
03. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
04. When A Blind Man Cries
05. Life On The Line
06. Dreams Of Desire
07. Still Got The Blues
08. Do You Ever Think Of Me?
09. It’s Got To Be Love
10. Shadow Of The Tyburn Tree
11. Road To Melnibone
12. When The Blues Catch Up With You
13. Howlin’ At The Moon
14. Memories
15. Trouble In Paradise
16. Lose My Number
Band:
Stuart Smith – guitar
Additional Musicians:
Kelly Hansen – vocals (1, 8, 15 & 16)
Joe Lynn Turner – vocals (2, 7, 9, 10 & 14)
Glenn Hughes – vocals (3)
Richie Sambora – vocals (4), guitar (4 & 8) and dobro (3)
Bobby Kimball – vocals (5)
Al Mirikitani – vocals (12) and guitar (12, 13)
Paul Shortino – vocals (13)
Howard Leese – guitar (2, 11 & 12) and strings (6)
Ian Hersey – guitar (11)
Marvin Sperling – bass (1, 2, 4, 6 & 9)
Chuck Wright – bass (3, 8, 11, 14 & 16)
Dave Chamberlain – bass (5 & 7)
Byod La’Fan – bass (12 & 13)
Steve Priest – bass (15)
Richie Onori – drums (1, 4, 6, 7 & 9)
Jay Schellen – drums (2, 5 & 16)
Carmine Appice – drums (3, 8 & 14)
Joe Pa’Fume – drums (12 & 13)
Mike Terrana – drums (11 & 15)
Ray Rodriguez – keyboards (1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 14 & 16)
Pat Regan – keyboards (6, 11 & 15) and strings (10)
Teddy Andreas – keyboards (9)
Arlan Schierbaum – hammond (5, 7, 12 & 13)
Richard Hardy – woodwinds (10)
Production:
Produced by Pat Regan, Howard Leese and Dave Jenkins.
Review:
Blues based guitar rock seems to be a forgotten genre, and that is too bad because you will find some of the best guitar shredding on those types of albums – a prime example is Heaven & Earth. Guitarist Stuart Smith can make a guitar sing without having to be flashy or pretentious. On this release he has recruited a who’s who of hard rock for a collection of songs, ranging from straight-up blues to 70s hard rock, that were recorded between 1997 and 2004.
This truly is an ambitious effort as Stuart and his cohorts skip across genres, refusing to get pigeon-holed into one specific scene. At one moment you will be reminded of early Deep Purple while the next moment you could swear Stevie Ray Vaughan had been reincarnated. With sixteen cuts on Heaven & Earth, I am just going to concentrate on the ones that really stand out for me.
One thing I noticed is that every song sung by Kelly Hansen is killer, and it isn’t so much because of his voice (although he has great pipes), but because he seems to have been handed the rocking tunes. “Don’t Keep Me Waiting” reminded me of a song Glenn Hughes would perform (little did I know Glenn would later show up here) with its rolling beat. “Do You Ever Think Of Me?” is a melodic number with a killer solo and catchy chorus, “Trouble In Paradise” has a Molly Hatchet honky-tonk vibe while “Lose My Number” is just a straight-ahead rocker. Joe Lynn Turner sounds incredible on “Heaven & Earth” and “It’s Got To Be Love”, but it is “Memories” that I like the best, it reminds me of classic Krokus.
I’m giving bonus points for “Dreams Of Desire”, which is an instrumental heavily influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach. It’s a song that would fit better on a Christmas album, but I like its originality. Guitar aficionados should love Stuart‘s bluesy soulful licks. As for the songs themselves, rarely do they miss the mark. There is something here for everyone, and samples of each song can be found at www.heavenandearthband.com and www.blackstarrecords.com.
Reviewed by Skid for Sleaze Roxx, January 2005.
Buy The CD:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at CDUniverse.com
Purchase at eBay.com