Year : 2021
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country : United Kingdom
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 110 mb
Bio:
SANTA ANA WINDS is a project created by AOR Blvd Records.Conducted by the great David A. Saylor (in his last recording before his recent death) and long time collaborator keyboardist John Dewsbury,First album "Santa Ana Winds" features three lead vocalists; David Saylor himself, Brad Henshaw (Road Kings) and newbie Rebecca Owen.Of course, this is pure AOR in the best '80s tradition.The idea was to carefully select & record obscure AOR songs from the past - some of them never officially released and only known as demos - with a new feeling and arrangements.Saylor's vocals did not need introduction to AOR fans, but I have to mention Brad Henshaw as a true revelation as AOR singer, plus Rebecca Own provides the sweet female touch, while Saylor's daughter Romany does some backing vocals.Let start with Brad Henshaw's songs: 'Don't Stand In My Way' (originally done buy Charlie) and since its opening keyboards you fall in love. Great guitar work by Saylor and a true AOR melody for the heart.Bill Quateman's 'Love Is A Mystery' is another highlight with keyboard lines that melt into your skin. Brad's voice is full of mysticism and suggestive phrasing. Awesome.The last Henshaw vocal contribution is heard in 'You', and obscure LaMarca song. This is another perfect demonstration of Brad's talents, and this 1985 song still delivers magic in 2017. Now let's go with Saylor's lead vocal tracks: 'Blinded' is perhaps the best known cut here, the Stan Bush song. Saylor makes it his own with this killer performance. Play it to your friends to show them what AOR is all about.'Clocks' is an obscure, unknown track once recorded by Sad Cafe. An almost spiritual ballad, this is a journey in time where the clock stops and you keep still enjoying the moment.The last David Saylor performance is on closer 'If We Call It Love', an original Fake ID demo. I love this song, and I love the way Saylor has crafted the main melody.Then we have the delicate and feminine part on the record, the songs performed by the unknown Rebecca Owen. And what a find she is."In Time" is a delicious midtempo where her vocals are the sweetest thing, and then she does again a great interpretation of Outside Edge's song 'Teardrop', this time with more muscle and passion."Santa Ana Winds" is a terrific AOR bringing back those glory years from the '80s. Albums of this quality standard do not get made very easily in 2017. What is on offer here is a classic AOR sound which captures the genre perfectly.It is produced with a very limited budget however and it shows, but do not let that put you off this album as the quality of the songs and the performances shine through. Rebecca Owen is a really great find and Henshaw sings like a giant, great voice. Is there anything that David Saylor can't sing? I've sang his praises a few times on here and he never fails to deliver top quality AOR, and Santa Ana Winds is no exception.
Album:
SANTA ANA WINDS is a unique project, both in its approach and in its development.The main idea is to take a handful of little-known AOR songs from big names inside and outside of the melodic rock field, and breathe new life into them through a careful cast of top-level musicians. All this through a purely AOR filter and made with the greatest care and taste.“Steel Breeze” is the 2nd release under the SANTA ANA WINDS moniker, with new musicians and a different producer – by Dave Draper, who also perform an array of instruments – bringing a new sound, plus talented vocalists like J.D. Kelly (From The Fire), Steevi Jaimz (ex Tigertailz) and Vicky Jackson.Limited to 500 copies, SANTA ANA WINDS’ ”Steel Breeze” is already sold out.These are awesome classy AOR songs written by AOR gurus like Janet Morrison Minto, Pamela Barlow, R. Carter, etc.The first installment of this project materialized in 2016 with a debut album that featured the vocal talents of the sadly late David A. Saylor (Push UK, Wild Rose), Brad Henshaw (Kings Road) and Rebecca Owen, putting together a marvelous choral work in which they paid just tribute and revitalized pieces by Stan Bush, Charlie or Outside Edge.For this new chapter, the work of musical archeology searching for potential AOR jewels has been equally commendable, this time recovering ten unjustly forgotten treasures that deserve a new opportunity.The team of musicians selected for the occasion lives up to the ambitious project. Thus, and when it comes to voices, we have an old acquaintance for fans of melodic rock, such as JD Kelly (From The Fire), who puts his voice to the bulk of the songs.Steevi jaimz, who was the vocalist of the first Tigertailz, does the same in two other tracks, and it is a joy to know that he is still in good shape. Closing the list of singer is Vicky Jackson, best known for her work in the field of dance music but which fits perfectly with her powerful vocal range.On the instrumental side, the virtuous work on the guitar of Drew Lowe stands out, who was a member of an early Inglorious line-up, with fellow producer Dave Draper (Ginger, The Wildhearts) handling the rest of the music.And what to say about the songs themselves, but that the selection is exquisite and that each and every one of them holds within it the potential to lift a band to triumph. Everything here has the aroma of a massive hit, from the very beginning with those dry guitar strums with which “You and Me in The Night” starts, originally a demo by the Americans Billy Satellite, a band that only released one album in the ’80 but that it is fair to remember, since with jewels like this under their belt they deserved better luck. Although the original has that eighties charm that cannot be imitated, that adolescent spirit of “boy seeks to conquer girl”, the treatment given here breathes new energy and gives the song a new dynamism, making it simply irresistible.“Under The Spell” was recorded by the Doobie Brothers in 1991, when its sound had little to do with that funky seventies and was closer to the canons that the era dictated for more commercial rock. A song that could well be signed by any of the greats of the genre that we like and that affects the idea that when the AOR dominated the charts, many old bands found a second youth in this sound.Something similar happens with “Somebody To Love”, a wonderful piece recorded in 1992 by veteran Mama’s Prideand elevated here to melodic heaven, with a simply stratospheric Lowe guitar solo.The melancholic piano of “New York (Hold her Tight)” tells us a sad story of failure and broken dreams, one of those tales with overtones of reality wrought with all the magic and fantasy that only a colossus like Van Stephenson could radiate. The performance here, although far from the clearly Westcoast aura of the original, is equally intimate and passionate, in a more than remarkable tribute to the figure who sang it for the first time in that distant 1981.Each of the ten songs tells its own story of success and failure. Thus, “Runnning With The Night” is a song by none other than Lionel Richie, perhaps not very well known if you are not a fan of the Alabama Star, but which he continues to perform today and that could already appeal to lovers of the lighter AOR, as it complies with the canons of the genre, so its inclusion here is more than justified.For its part, “You Don’t Know” is not a theme it has been excluded from the sessions of Mark Free’s “Long Way From Love”, although it may seem so, but it is the work of Darin Scheff, brother of the former bassist and singer from Chicago since the mid-80s, Jason Scheff.The rest of the titles were recovered from obscure demos belonging to the Barlow / Minto tandem, authentic legends responsible for composing some of the greatest songs in the history of the AOR, which made up the bulk of Alien’s first work (1988), and the album of Fake ID (“Dreaming Ezekiel”).With these credentials you can already assume that the songs are of the highest category. “Every Time I See You” and its powerful guitar melody, “We Knew This Love”and its stadium-busting potential, “Long Last Look” with Vicky’s voice taking center stage, and “The Thunder”, catchy like few others.All of them could have appeared in the debut of the Swedes and did not clash with classics like “Tears Don’t Put Out The Fire” or “Go Easy”.In short, ten songs that are overflowing with freshness and that leave you wanting more. And it is that before initiatives like this we can only say thank you. Thank you for giving new life to wonderful pieces hidden in the trunk of oblivion, thank you for letting us know and thank you for doing it through the AOR.
Line Up:
Dave Draper – all instruments
Drew Lowe – guitars
Emily Ewing – backing vocals
lead vocals:
J.D. Kelly (From The Fire)
Steevi Jaimz (ex Tigertailz)
Vicky Jackson
production:
Executive Producer – Paul Mitch Rudland
Producer – Dave Draper
Tracklist:
01. You me in the night [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
02. Every time I see you [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
03. New York (hold her tight) [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
04. Under the spell [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
05. The thunder [lead vocals Steevi Jaimz]
06. You don’t know [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
07. Somebody to love [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
08. Running in the night [lead vocals J.D. Kelly]
09. We knew this love [lead vocals Steevi Jaimz]
10. Long last look [lead vocals Vicky Jackson]
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