STEVE WALSH
Shadowman
Frontiers Records 2005
www.steve-walsh.de

What’s the 4-1-1?
The vocalist and keyboardist for the prog rock band Kansas steps out on his own again with his third solo album in 25 years.

Genre
Progressive rock

The Good
The question is where to begin. This is a superb album chock full of pounding drums, slick and powerful guitar work. Steve Walsh is in excellent voice and his collaborators are quite capable of turning each and every song on this album into something more than simple progressive rock. It’s hard to choose between each of the 8 songs on the album for what is my own personal favorite, but I loved the stylistic changes from pure out rock, progressive melodies and orchestration, and epic length songs that are interesting the entire way through.

The track “Keep On Knockin’” has a very down and dirty swagger to it. The guitar work on the song reminds me of the material off of the newest Glenn Hughes solo album Soul Mover. In case you are wondering, that’s a good thing since I loved the Hughes album. The lead track “Rise” has an interesting opening intro and then it breaks out into this amazing high-energy rock track. The title is a bit long but “Davey, and the Stone That Rolled Away” has some heavy guitar riffs on it. The title cut and “Hell Is Full Of Heroes” were enhanced by orchestration and it really lent itself to each track’s overall epic feel.

The Bad
Sorry, I got nothing.

The Verdict
Steve Walsh produced the album so you know that this represents his own unique musical vision. He has a great group of musicians helping him out here including Joe Franco (Twisted Sister) on drums. What was most surprising to me is how much I enjoyed the guitar work of Joel Kosche. He’s from Collective Soul, a band I never particularly enjoyed. He’s amazing here.

I’m always happy to get surprised by new music, and while I am a big fan of Kansas I hadn’t heard any of Walsh’s solo work. Now I have and I am very happy about it. This is a top-notch kick butt guitar oriented rock and roll album, and it should DEFINITELY be given multiple spins.

Did You Know?
Symphony X guitarist Michael Romeo guided the orchestration on three of the album’s tracks. Steve Walsh fronted a band called Streets when he left Kansas in 1980. They released two albums called 1st (1983) and Crimes In Mind (1985).

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts