Escape Music/Border
Glen Bridger started playing guitar after hearing VAN HALEN, when he was in his teens. Though awarded a baseball scholarship he decided to go for a music career. Learning from magazines he found work with Kansas City´s top bands, e.g. HEAD EAST. This new venture features powerful singer Terry Ilous of XYZ, keyboard player Sam McCaslin of MICHAEL SCHENKER and CARMINE APPICE fame, plus fellow HEAD EAST bass player Greg Manahan, plus a certain Danzoid on drums. Additional musicians include JK Northrup, Larry Hart (MONTROSE, KING KOBRA), Eddy Jones of HEAD EAST and Pat Fontaine of XYZ has supplied lyrics.
The MR BIG echo in “Tuesday Afternoon” makes for a cozy opening. Perhaps not a roaring thunder but a softer and well played start. To my surprise the ensuing “How Long” has more in common with THE SEX PISTOLS, and is a fusion of rock and punk. WHITESNAKE seems close in “On the Ledge”, “Free” makes me remember how I miss THUNDER and their very own “Don´t Push Me” is simply a dazzling moment of arrangements, riffs, vocals, a refrain to die for and an enigmatic ending. The far too soft, on the verge of meaningless, “Live for the Moment” is the only letdown. The next ballad, “Once in a Lifetime” would have earned them truckloads of dollars in the eighties, and I have still saved the best for last; “Heaven and Hell”. BRIDGER`S tribute to the late little man with the big voice is nothing like the rest. There may be more tributes than bands soon, but this has a different beat, a will to make it their own effort as far as possible, and above all it is contagious. It must be a record track surviving for months in my constantly evolving MP3. I think there will be more from this lot, to hold them back would be a sin… HIGHLY RECOMENDED.
Track List
Tuesday Afternoon
How Long
On the Ledge
Don´t Push Me
Without a Sound
Free
Live for the Moment
Good to Be Home
Gonna Get Better
Once in a Lifetime
Heaven and Hell (Tribute to Ronnie James Dio)
www.escape-music.com http://www.myspace.com/glenbridger
