Album review: JOHN ELEFANTE – The Amazing Grace

Escape Music [Release date 22.04.22]

John Elefante is probably best known amongst rock fans for his time in Kansas in the early 80’s when he replaced Steve Walsh. After leaving Kansas he worked as a producer for Christian artists including Petra and in the early 90’s did two excellent albums with his brother Dino under the Mastedon name (well worth tracking these down for a listen). Since then he has released a series of solo albums and continued with his production work.

Now we have his latest solo album where he is joined by drummer Dan Needham, guitarists Dave Cleveland and Frank Boxberger, Eric Darken on percussion, Dave Cleveland on acoustic guitar and Chris Carmichael, who did the string arrangements.

The spirit of Kansas is never far away on the sound of some of songs, most notably ‘Little Brown Book’. On this one the riff even sounds like Kansas’s ‘Fight Fire With Fire’!

John Elefante’s music is always uplifting, either in the spiritual lyrics or the music, as is the case on ‘Stronger Now’. The backing vocals work well plus you get a George Harrison approved guitar solo, classy stuff. ‘Falling Into Place’ is another similar upbeat song, proving that he still has that distinctive vocal, which is as powerful as it ever was.

The title track brings a nice bit of pomp to the proceedings and closer ‘And When I’m Gone’ is a moving ballad, aided greatly by the piano playing of Jimmy Nichols.

An album that gets better and better after each play, as what it may lack in instant songs, instead has plenty of high quality tunes to keep the listener coming back again and again. ***1/2

Review by Jason Ritchie

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)