ACMJ International Blog

"California Groove" - AOR/Westcoast Music 4 discs French Compilation now internationally available!

"California Groove" (Warner Music France) 75 all-time best AOR/West Coast Music tunes compilation on 4 CDs was released April 6, 2009 exclusively in France. I am pleased to let you know that it has just become available internationally through AMAZON. Here is the full track listing;

• Disc 1
  1. Ventura Highway - America
  2. Las Vegas Turnaround - Daryl Hall & John Oates
  3. Lotta Love - Nicolette Larson
  4. Dismal Day - Bread
  5. Dance With Me - Orleans
  6. Border Town - The Souther Hillman Furay Band
  7. Some People Call It Music - John David Souther
  8. Summer Breeze - Seals And Croft
  9. You'Re So Vain - Carly Simon
  10. Long Hot Summer Nights - Wendy Waldman
  11. Chuck E'S In Love - Rickie Lee Jones
  12. Easy For You To Say - Linda Ronstadt
  13. It Doesn'T Matter - Firefall
  14. I'M Easy - Boz Scaggs
  15. Junkman - Danny O'Keefe
  16. I Saw The Light - Todd Rundgren
  17. Willin' - Little Feat
  18. Suzy - Terence Boylan
  19. Ghost Town - Poco
  20. Life'S Been Good - Joe Walsh

• Disc 2
  1. Oh Lori - Alessi Brothers
  2. Damn You Girl - Barnaby Bye
  3. Break The Chain - Jim Messina
  4. Mama Coco - Gino Vannelli
  5. Future Train - Felix Cavaliere
  6. Swearin' To God - Frankie Valli
  7. Too Young - Crackin'
  8. Night Time In The Switching Yard - Warren Zevon
  9. On The Swing Shift - Ned Doheny
  10. What A Fool Believes - The Doobie Brothers
  11. Survival - Marc Jordan
  12. Night People - Vapor Trails
  13. This Is It - Kenny Loggins
  14. Ticket To My Heart - The Wilson Brothers
  15. Genevieve - Andrew Gold
  16. Casablanca - Dane Donohue
  17. Gotta Get Back To Love - Bill Champlin
  18. Thunder Island - Jay Ferguson
  19. Ride Like The Wind - Christopher Cross

• Disc 3:
  1. Livin' It Up - Bill Labounty
  2. Hot Rod Hearts - Robbie Dupree
  3. I Keep Forgettin (Every Time You'Re Near) - Michael Mcdonald
  4. You'Re The Only Woman (You & I) - Ambrosia
  5. Get Used To It - Roger Voudouris
  6. Who'll Be The Fool Tonight - Larsen-Feiten Band
  7. Cool Night - Paul Davis
  8. I'd Really Love To See You Tonight - England Dan & John Ford Coley
  9. Falling - Leblanc And Carr
  10. Fly Away - Peter Allen
  11. Nite Crawler - Larry Carlton
  12. Got A Hold On Me - Christine Mcvie
  13. California 1 - Con-Funk-Shun
  14. That'S Why I Came To California - Leon Ware
  15. What Cha Gonna Do For Me - Chaka Khan
  16. Stop, Look, Listen - Patti Austin
  17. Please Don'T Walk Away - George Benson
  18. We're In This Love Together - Al Jarreau
  19. 99 - Toto

• Disc 4:
  1. When Sky Calls (Don'T Touch That Phone) - Michael Franks
  2. Nice Girls - Eye To Eye
  3. On The Beach - Chris Rea
  4. Ocean Bay - Nightshift
  5. More Than You'll Ever Know - Michael Ruff
  6. I Love L.A. - Randy Newman
  7. The Higher You Rise - Maxus
  8. She Waits For Me (Early Airplay Demo) - Jay Graydon
  9. Where There'S No Tomorrow - Peter Cetera
  10. The Big House - Stephen Bishop
  11. First Time - Michael Sembello
  12. Countdown (Captain Fingers) - Lee Ritenour
  13. Sister'S Beautiful - Geyster
  14. Hard To Say I'M Sorry - Chicago
  15. My Baby - David Pack
  16. Cure Kit - JaR
  17. French Music Par Excellence - Week End Millionnaire

Bill LaBounty Japan Tour Successful

Bill LaBounty's Japan Tour was so successful with Larry Carlton. Everyone enjoyed the show featuring brand new tunes from Bill's latest effort "Back To Your Star" and good old melodies from his former albums including "Livin' It Up". Here is the short message from Bill taken after the 1st show on October 5th at the backstage of Cotton Club Tokyo.

Mastedon will be back with the brand new album "3"

Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the European release of the brand new MASTEDON album “3” on November 6th 2009.

Mastedon is the Hard Rock band put together by ex KANSAS singer John Elefante, together with his brother Dino in the late 80’s. The band's name was a pachyderm-inspired reference to the brothers' last name. Although John was an accomplished vocalist and performer, the first two Mastedon albums featured multiple lead singers and performances by other artists, creating an eclectic sound anchored by John’s songwriting. His brother Dino played a prominent role, contributing songwriting and handling most of the guitar work. Some of the collaborators in the band's first two albums were Dave Amato (REO Speedwagon), Stef Burns (Y&T), bassists John Pierce (Richard Marx) and John Patitucci plus guest vocalists David Pack (Ambrosia), David Robbins (X-Sinner), Tom Bowes (Tower of Power), James Dean Longacre (Life9) and Perry Lee (Tracer Fox).

In 1996 John Elefante started a solo career that brought him to release three successful albums more in the Adult Contemporary - Pop Rock vein. After a few years of hiatus, John decided to go back to his roots sound with a brand new Mastedon album that - contrary to the predecessors – would only feature his amazing lead vocals. Musically, the new album, simply entitled “3” harkens back to the best of Mastedon and to his work with Kansas. None other than main Kansas songwriter Kerry Livgren appears on lead guitar on this new release, collaborating on a 11 minute piece of music that any Kansas fan will surely love! More famed musicians and such as Dave Amato (REO Speedwagon), Anthony Sallee (Whiteheart), Dan Needham (Michael McDonald, Neville Brothers, Amy Grant, Garth Brooks etc) and of course John’s brother Dino Elefante contribute to the performance of this superb new release.

Rich melodic harmonies and melodies are the keys to a Mastedon record and “3” is clearly an instant winner in all its moments and will remain as an hallmark in John Elefante's career for many years to come. Final tracklisting of “3” includes: Revolution of Mind; Slay Your Demons; Nowhere Without Your Love; One Day Down By The Lake (See You Real Soon); Water Into Wine (Fassa Rokka), Questions (It’s About Time); You Can’t Take Anything; Lying; The Western World; That’s What You Do; Dust In the Wind (exclusive bonus track).

As a companion to this new release, Frontiers managed to acquire the rights for the re-release of Mastedon’s legendary debut album “It’s a Jungle Out There!”. Released originally in 1989, it charted at #25 in the Billboard Top Contemporary Christian chart. To this day, this album is still considered classics in the genre and has reached some amazing prices in the trades on E-bay. Frontiers new reissue includes full lyrics and three bonus tracks “Wasn't It Love" (from the compilation “California Metal”) and live versions of “Islands In The Sky” and “Right Hand” recorded live at Cornerstone in 1991. Full tracklisting is below:

It’s A Jungle Out There; Glory Bound; This Is The Day; Love Inhalation; Islands In The Sky; Get Up; Love That Will Survive; Innocent Girl; Shine On; Right Hand; Wasn’t It Love *; Islands In The Sky (Live at Cornerstone '91)*; Right Hand (Live at Cornerstone '91)*

* Bonus tracks

BLANC FACES "Falling From The Moon" available in November

Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of BLANC FACES new album entitled “Falling from The Moon” on November 6th in Europe and November 26th in the USA. In 2005 one of the brightest new stars on the Melodic Rock scene appeared during the hot summer time. In July of that year Blanc Faces, headed by the brothers duo, Robbie and Brian La Blanc debuted with their self titled album showing the world that the time for big harmonies was not over. With a stunning production and some truly brilliant songs, Blanc Faces managed to catch the attention of the entire Melodic Rock oriented press and loads of new fans. Following the huge responses, the band appeared for the first time in Europe at the first edition of the United Forces of Rock Festival in Ludwigsburg, Germany where they literally took the crowd by storm. Little by little the two brothers (who by the way have an outstanding career in music including providing background vocals on music involving Toto lead singer Bobby Kimball and legendary singer Ronnie Spector) started putting together musical material for the second album which they completed in the summer of 2009. ”My brother wrote most of the material, I wrote some lyrics for it” says singer Robbie LaBlanc. “It’s fumy when you think back on the time period you write something it parallels what’s going on in your life at that time whether you know it or not. When I’m listening to the new CD I can remember what I was thinking or feeling at that moment. My brother just likes to write melodic songs, I think the approach was pretty much the same as the last CD”. Not wanting to touch a team that gave superb results on the debut record, Blanc Faces worked again with Kyle Woodring (Dennis DeYoung; Survivor; John Mellencamp) on drums, Jeff Batter (Cannata) on keyboards, and Butch Taylor and Michael Patzig on lead guitar. “We are real happy that it’s done and sounding great” continues Robbie, “I took a lot more time with the vocals on this CD. There were songs that I thought were done and I’d listen back and want to do it again. Sometimes you can drive your self nuts with that but I usually know when something sounds right. We hope everyone feels the same way!” Just a few weeks after the completion of the record the sad news of Kyle Woodring passing reached everyone, so the entire album is dedicated to this amazing musician. Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Place Vendome etc.) delivered once again a superior quality in the mixing sessions so once again the end result is an astonishing album that restores the faith in Classic AOR / Melodic Rock music. If you are a fan of Journey, Foreigner and Survivor, you will love this recording!