Ole Børud / Shakin´ the Ground
In Norway, where the musical diet consists almost entirely of white rock&roll, an artist such as Ole Børud is indeed a welcoming spice. With one leg planted in American West Coast / AOR music, and the other in soul and funk, his solo debut original studio recording album entiltled "Shakin' The Ground", will shake the country’s musical fundament, and most importantly, the dance floor. The album, however, is not merely a defining musical moment on these latitudes: "Shakin' The Ground" sounds unique by any standards, and showcases an abundance of musical qualities that are rarely heard these days.
Ole Børud is far from a newcomer in the Norwegian music scene. Few artists are as widely experienced. Starting his singing career at the age of five, Ole appeared on his first record already the year after. From the age of sixteen, he has been a full-time musician, both singing and playing guitar, with numerous bands and artists in a variety of genres and settings. Ole has toured every continent, and starred on almost twenty album releases, ranging from the gospelgroup Arnold B Family to Extol, the internationally acclaimed Christian metal band from Oslo in Norway. His musical résumé also includes national luminaries as Sofian and Torun Eriksen, and he has shared the stage with international artists such as Andrae Crouch.
Besides hard working with the band Extol, Ole released a solo project CD " Chi-Rho" featuring 10 CCM (Contemporary Christiain Music) tunes originally performed by Whiteheart and Rebecka St James in 2002. In June of 2004, Ole left Extol because he would like to pursue his versatile music activities and for the past years before releasing this album, Ole has been working as a session musician/singer in Norway.
"Shakin' the Ground" is Ole Børud’s true debut as a solo artist. His music is a result of his diverse background, and is just as exciting. Close harmonies and sophisticated arrangements bears proof of his love for late 70's or early 80's West Coast / AOR music, whereas the rhythms are deeply rooted in funk and R&B. The album is in many ways a musical encounter between west coast sunshine and a gritty east coast urbanity, where you can hear inspiration from artists as different as Steely Dan and D´angelo. But what really gives the album its distinctive stamp, is Ole Børud’s incomparable voice: As crystal clear as it is funky, it leaves a unique personal signature, carrying the tunes with nerve, heart and soul. With some of the best Norwegian musicians in the band, the stage is set for one of the most groundshaking musical experiences of the year.
Why do you hesitate to experience Ole Børud's brand new album? No Reasons! Just Visit his myspace.com page and listen to his original tunes! You can order "Shakin' The Ground" CD there!
It is great pleasure for me to let you know that David Roberts is back with his 2nd solo album in early summer of 2008! As you fully know, David Roberts' 1982 masterpiece album "All Dressed Up" was reissued in July 2006 on CD by VIVID SOUND, Japan and many AOR / West Coast fans are expecting his brand-new album since then. Now in the spring of 2008, the wait is over! David Roberts' brand-new studio recording album will be released early summer of 2008, hopefully on 25 June by VIVID SOUND, Japan. The first recording session of this 2nd solo album was done in the Summer of 2007 in Los Angels with Greg Mathieson as the producer, who was the one producing "All Dressed Up" in 1982! David recorded 5 songs including self-cover version of "Before I Go" originally recorded by STARSHIP for their smash hit album "Knees In The Hoopla" (1986) and a song titled "Stay WIth Me", unreleased material recorded by John Waite (ex Babys) in early 90's. The backing up musicians are awesome; Michael Landau (guitar), Greg Mathieson (keyboards), Abe Laboriel (bass), Mike Baird (drums) and Luis Conte (percussion) gathered to record 5 tunes for this David's come-back album. The rest half of the album has been done in Nashville in March 2008, with Fred Mollin as the producer, best-known for America's 1980's album "Alibai" and/or Jimmy Webb's 1996 album "Ten Easy Pieces".
Tony 'N' Tina is well-known as the long-running Off-Broadway interactive play (in which the actors interact with the audience, which acts as the audience of the wedding being performed both on-stage and around them in the aisles. The movie based upon the play was created and granted a limited release in 2004, featuring Joey McIntyre (ex. New Kids on the Block, a boy band that enjoyed enormous success in the late 1980s and early 1990s).
Keith Howland, the current guitarist of the band Chicago, has just released his new project CD, just before starting Chicago Japan Tour. The project is called as "KeCraig", which is a brotherly jam between Keith Howland and drummer Craig Howland, his brother. The Howland brothers went into Keith's home studio over the Thanksgiving holiday and recorded the bortherly jam sessions with only guitar and drums. The result was beyond their expectation, thus Keith added some bass, “KeCraig” was suddenly becoming a legit project. Jeff Babko layed down some killer keys that glued the project together and produced the final result. As far as I have heard MP 3 clips, I am sure that there must be huge energy all through the album. Really COOL fusion album, never smooth jazz...
John Townsend, known for his late 70's blue-eyed soul band with Ed Sanford, "The Sanford-Townsend Band" with a 1977 hit single "Smoke from a Distant Fire". Breaking his long silence as an artist, John was back with his solo album entitled "The Road Leads Home" in 2003. Before this solo release, John started the band with the Toler brothers; Dan and Frankie in mid 90's. The trio had been playing in Gregg Allman's solo band and when the Allman Bros. Band reformed in '94 and '95. Since then, Danny, Frankie and John have been playing in various bands together and have been threatening to do this for some time. For those less familiar with the entities involved: Danny and Frankie both had played with the Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman's solo band and Dickey Betts Great Southern. Frankie had also done a stint with the Marshall Tucker Band.
Early January of 2005, Marco Taggiasco, Italy based arranger and producer appeared in front of me with his first solo album "Thousand Things" recroded in Feb. 2004 featuring young gifted vocalist named Andrea Sanchini. I wrote on this blog that the first track "Never Too Late (For Love)" on the album reminded me of Eric Tagg's melodies and that the voice of Andrea Sanchini is very similar to that of Bill Cantos. Thus, it did not take a long time before the record became a little cult item mostly in Japan and Northern Europe.
Robbie Dupree's brand new CD "Time And Tide" will now be officially released around the world! In Europe and Scandinavia, Zink Records, Sweden will release the album on April 23rd. Here in Japan, I am very pleased to publish that the brand new powerful label "MUSIC AIR INTERNATIONAL" will release this album as the very first release of the label on May 10th. The label has the satellite TV channel called "Music Air Network" on Sky-PerfecTV (Channel 271) which airs adult-oriented music videos, live shows and so on.
Recent Comments