Album review : STEEL BARS – A Rock Tribute To Michael Bolton – V/A
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Frontiers [Release date: 07.07.23]
Any adult remotely interested in popular music will have heard of Michael Bolton. His songs have been compiled to within an inch of their lives and have become the language of lurrve on late nite radio, as much as the songs of Percy Sledge or Barry White.
Frontiers Music has now successfully raided the pivotal albums in Bolton’s back catalogue, primarily from his early AOR career, and matched the key songs with outstanding vocalists on the label’s roster.
Five songs come from Bolton’s Everybody’s Crazy(1985) album, and feature a fistful of cowrites with Mark (Touch/Drive She Said) Mangold and Randy (Steve Perry/Toto/Chicago) Goodrum.
Hard to go wrong then, and to be honest, the respect shown to the source material is almost palpable, and the artists step right up to the challenge.
Steve Overland’s version of ‘Fools Game’, is soulful, and performed with his trademark conviction. It vies with up and coming band, Storm Warning’s vocalist, Santiago Ramonda, who leans back and delivers a cool, quietly passionate version of ‘Save Our Love’, keeping his foot on the pedal but never rushing it.
On the poppier side, the sparkling AOR tones of Dave Mikulskis’ vocals, a new Jim (Survivor) Peterik protege, on ‘How Can We Be Lovers’ standout bigtime. The hooky chorus bears the unmistakable imprint of songwriter, Desmond Child.
That’s mirrored by the polished pop immediacy of The Big Deal’s Anna Nikolic and Nevena Brankovic’s version of the upbeat ‘Wait On Love’. Only this time the co-write comes from Journey’s Jonathan Cain.
Elsewhere, Steven (About Us) Nyqvuist handles ballad ‘Call My Name’ with care, and with ‘Desperate Heart’, James (Sinners Blood) Robledo proves himself to be another suitable candidate for Jim Peterik’s melodic rock projects.
All too often, this types of project falls flat. This one’s a winner. ***1/2
Review by Brian McGowan
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