EBC Roxx (Tony Carey) – Winners Vol.1 (2010)

Overwhelming power and incredible energy are the basic elements in motor racing and in rock music.
At the end of November 2009 Mercedes announced that after 55 years they will return to the motor racing champions league, Formula 1, with their own racing team.
For the multitalented Tony Carey (ex-RAINBOW) this was the spark he had been waiting for quite some time.

Having played live at one of the Formula 1 races before, the time had come for Carey to start a motor racing project: a ‘silver arrow’ anthem to accompany the first race of Mercedes Formula 1 pilots Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.
In order to put together a proficient team for the project he got fellow german female singer ELA sharing the vocals and Ritchie Blackmore’s son Jürgen on guitars.
The single “Silver Arrows” was released in March 2010.

They had so much fun that they decided to do a whole album together.
Now the musical racing project EBC ROXX is really taking off with 11 brand new songs: “Winners”, a pedigreed rock ’n’ race album.
Musically this is classic Hard Rock influenced by both RAINBOW and DEEP PURPLE, with an updated sound.
You can hear that Carey’s groovy organ is originated from the classic RAINBOW album “Rising” while it is obvious that Jürgen have taken impression from his fathers last session in DEEP PURPLE and albums like ”Perfect Strangers” and ”The Battle Rages On”.
They manage to create a really fine groove on several tracks and you can find both strong melodies and great guitar riffs, and there is no doubt that some tracks have a really strong potential.

The songs of the album not only talk about Formula 1 (“Silver Arrow” and “Big Livin”), but generally about living in the fast lane on two or four wheels.
Opener “Rolling”, a really ‘drivin’ tune, depicts the intoxication caused by speed.
“Fly” is dedicated to the legendary speed weeks of the Bonneville salt flats (USA).
“Red Dirt Devils” is about the thunderous motocross bikers.
Title track “Winners” talks of the bright side while “Your Last Dance” is about the dark side of motor racing.

Carey’s harsh pipes has aged well and ELA’s voice is mature, Jürgen got some of the same riff genes as his father (even if it sounds like he steals a little bit from him) and it seems like they can write some pretty interesting tunes.
Drum sound could be better produced, and maybe focus an entire album on fast cars and dangerous highways is a bit repetitive, but this is a fun collection of songs with no other pretension than entertainment.
And it does.

01 – Rolling
02 – Fly
03 – Red Dirt Devils
04 – Drivin Song (It’s Rock)
05 – Big Livin
06 – Your Last Dance
07 – Drivin Song (Let’s Go)
08 – Silver Arrows (Rock & Racing Edition)
09 – Winners
10 – Winners (Special Mixx)
11 – Silver Stomp (Special Mixx)
12 – Out Of Time (Special Bonus Track)

Tony Carey : Vocals, Bass
JR Blackmore : Guitars
ELA : Vocals