Frontiers [Release date 23.08.24]

Few musical artists get the chance to rerecord their old material.

Still fewer improve upon the originals.

White Lion’s material usually had more to say than your average rock song, lyrically it was more illustrative in its themes and concepts.

Back in the eighties, while their peer group were pouting and swaggering around them, singer/songwriter Mike Tramp was talking up issues, large and small. From war dead (All The Fallen Men) and apartheid (Cry For Freedom), both featured on Volume 1 last year, to more war dead (El Salvador) and even more war dead (Road To Valhalla) here on Volume 2.

Worthy, yes, but unlikely chart material you would have ventured.

The remaining tracks on this second volume focus on what goes on inside our head rather than outside.

To begin with though, the album bursts into larger than life with Tramp’s more considered version of ‘Lights & Thunder’, a song allegedly inspired by Led Zeppelin’s ‘Achilles Last Stand’.

Tramp partners with guitarist, Marcus Nand, in recreating a soft centred hard rock song, then adding to it. Something that is both melodic and muscular, a version with a greater sense of range and depth than the original.

Then there’s your actual upbeat love songs, ‘Til Death Do Us Part’ and ‘You’re All I Need’, both of which might have sounded dated, but now, creditably, sound fresh and new. Thanks to Nand’s sympathetic axework and the maturity that has grown into Tramp’s vocals.

Of course, the socially marginalised and the weightier issues of loneliness and grief have their moments, like ‘Out With The Boys’, ‘Lonely Nights’ and the very personal tribute to Tramp and bandmate Vita Bratta’s youthful friendship, ‘Farewell To You’.

Tramp walks an emotional tightrope, knowing that the years have loaned his voice an edge, adding heft and clarity to his songs, and perhaps more importantly, the ability to convey this to the listener.

You can almost imagine his audience leaning in closer. ***1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

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Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)

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