BERNHARD WELZ – Stay Tuned 1.5 (2016)
“Stay Tuned 1.5” is the brainchild of Austrian drummer BERNHARD WELZ who set up this All-Stars charity project in 2011 with the aim of raising cash for good causes.
Among the many luminaires we find Steve Lukather, Tony Martin, Don Airey, Ian Paice, Paul McCartney, Roger Glover, Steve Morse and the late Jon Lord & Steve Lee (Gotthard), just to name a few.
As for the music within Stay Tuned 1.5, it’s pure Classic Rock / AOR / Melodic Rock, all arranged and recorded with an ’80s feel. Most of the songs are originals composed by Welz.
You can rock out to ‘It’s Just A Long Way’ featuring the underrated Carl Sentance on lead vocals, ‘Young Free And Deadly’ with the awesome Tony Martin, and the aptly titled ‘I Don’t Believe That Rock ‘N Roll is Out’.
There’s also some inspired ballads and soaring anthems. For the former, there’s ‘Fading Away’ and nice piano driven ‘Always Behind You’, for the latter the choral-like vocal arrangement of ‘Let The Star Shine On You’ with Steve Lukather providing a sharp solo.
To be honest, to these ears, some songs did fall flat, namely ‘Secret Land’ and ‘Wanna Give You My Lovin’, which failed to hook me like the others. Not bad at all, just not as effective as the rest.
You have two bonuses at the end: one is a live recording of Deep Purple’s ‘Child In Time’ done in 2009 featuring the late Steve Lee (Gotthard) on lead vocals and Jon Lord on keyboards. A must for fans of both musicians.
The other is a live take of Wings’ “Maybe I’m Amazed” featuring Paul McCartney on lead vocals.
Bernhard Welz’s “Stay Tuned 1.5” is a fine and entertaining album with a truly Classic Rock sound, sometimes with AORish / melodic rock moments and very good performances from all involved.
Some tracks are really, really good, and very well produced by Welz himself.
Strongly Recommended
01 – Traffic Night
02 – Fading Away
03 – Let The Star Shine On You
04 – I Don.t Believe That R’N’R Is Out
05 – Young Free And Deadly
06 – It’s Just A Long Way
07 – Always Behind You
08 – Believe Me
09 – Secret Land
10 – Wanna Give You My Lovin’
11 – Drum Jam
BONUS TRACKS:
12 – Child In Time (Deep Purple cover)
13 – Maybe I’m Amazed (Wings cover)
Musicians;
IAN PAICE (Deep Purple, Paul McCartney)
JON LORD (Deep Purple)
DON AIREY (Deep Purple, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Ozzy)
ROGER GLOVER (Deep Purple)
STEVE MORSE (Deep Purple)
GUY PRATT (Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Michael Jackson)
STEVE LUKATHER (Toto)
LEE SKLAR (all !)
MARK KING (Level 42)
MIKE STERN
DAN McCAFFERTY ( Nazareth)
TONY MARTIN (Black Sabbath)
NEIL MURRAY (Whitesnake, Brian May)
STEVE LEE (Gotthard)
KLAUS SCHUBERT (No Bros, Schubert in Rock)
KAITNER Z DOKA (Ian Paice, Don Airey)
LAURENCE COTTLE (Alan Parson Project, Cher, Sting)
KATRINA LESKANICH (Katrina And The Waves)
NEIL TAYLOR (Robbie Williams, Chris de Burgh)
ERNESTO GHEZZI (Zucchero, Eros Ramazotti, Gotthard)
CARL SENTANCE (Krokus, Geezer Butler, Persian Risk)
AITCH McROBBIE (Joe Cocker, David Gilmour)
MATT FILIPPINI (Glenn Hughes, Ian Paice, Don Airey)
CHRIS CHILDS (Thunder, Paul Young)
ROBBY MUSENBICHLER (Opus, Boney M, Fendrich)
ANDI BRUNNER
GERI MODER
FREDDY POTSCH
CHRISTINA LUX (Jon Lord Band)
NOTA BENE SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA
BUY IT !
www.amazon.de/Stay-Tuned-1-5-Welz-Bernhard/dp/B01J94EEYK
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