RONNIE ROMERO – Raised On Radio (2022) *0dayrox World Premiere*
One of the great up-and-coming hard rock singers of our time, RONNIE ROMERO, will release next Friday on Frontiers Music a unique covers album, “Raised On Radio“. The album features covers of classics that have meant something special to Romero over the years and helped forge this talented singer’s musical style.
Songs by legendary acts like Survivor, Bad Company, Foreigner, Queen, Led Zeppelin, and more are given Romero’s talented vocal treatment here.
Joining Romero is a stellar cast of musicians, including Srdjan Brankovic (The Big Deal, Alogia) on guitar, Javi Garcia on bass, Andy C (ex-Lords of Black) on drums, and Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards, etc.
Romero’s performances are impressive, and of course, you have timeless classics here!
Frontiers obviously already has a working relationship with Romero through Lords Of Black and The Ferrymen, but knew Romero had the pipes to sing Melodic Rock/AOR (hence why he brought him in to sing for 2020’s “Afterlife” by Sunstorm).
As the two discussed Romero working on a solo album for the label, the idea of Romero covering classic AOR and Classic Rock artists for a covers album appeared. Romero, being a fan of these styles already and influenced by them in his formative years, knew he could easily pick a killer list of songs that suited his tastes and thus, “Raised On Radio” was born.
Through Romero’s career thus far, he has performed killer renditions of several rock classics as part of his shows fronting legendary acts like Rainbow and the Michael Schenker Group (MSG).
He’s also covered classic songs by Journey, Queen, Rainbow, and more with Spanish metallers Lords Of Black. So, with trying his hand at covers by legendary artists being familiar territory already, “Raised on Radio” were waters that Romero was already comfortable wading into.
But rather than go for covers of well known mega-hits, Romero and company went for, in most cases, lesser known, deep cuts from these legendary bands.
Because after all, when you truly love a band, you know those gems buried beneath the surface on their hit albums. Such gems by Queen, Kansas, Elf, Uriah Heep, Bad Company, Foreigner, and more are taken on here with passion and enthusiasm by Ronnie and his backing band of supremely talented players.
But rather than go for covers of well known mega-hits, Romero and company went for, in most cases, lesser known, deep cuts from these legendary bands.
Because after all, when you truly love a band, you know those gems buried beneath the surface on their hit albums. Such gems by Queen, Kansas, Elf, Uriah Heep, Bad Company, Foreigner, and more are taken on here with passion and enthusiasm by Ronnie and his backing band of supremely talented players.
Ronnie selected the songs all by himself and he has come up with some very surprising choices. All aspects of his vocal abilities are being used and all together (at stages) it paints a pretty impressive picture.
What speaks for Ronnie is that he has not chosen a bunch of well-known or popular covers. I mean ‘Black Dog’, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ or ‘Rock And Roll’ by Led Zeppelin would have been a logic choice but Ronnie Romero went for the bluesy track ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’, and he is killing it.
The songs that he has selected from Russ Ballard (‘Voices’), Grand Funk Railroad (‘Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother’), Queen (‘I Was Born To Love You’), Survivor (‘Backstreet Love Affair’), Bad Company (‘No Smoke Without A Fire’), Elf (‘Carolina Country Ball’), Foreigner (‘Girl On The Moon’), Kansas (‘Play The Game Tonight’), Bob Dylan (‘All Along The Watchtower’) and Uriah Heep (‘Gypsy’) are certainly not the most popular tracks of those artists and bands, but they do show that Ronnie Romero can sing basically any genre that is connected with rock music.
And he nails it. Only the pepped up version of ‘Voices’ by Russ Ballard sounds strange; that’s an ’80s song plenty of atmosphere, and here was arranged too much straight ahead.
What does appeal is that here and there some songs have some twist and turns like the intro of Heep’s ‘Gypsy’ for instance. Romero and his musicians play around a little instead of sticking as close as possible to the original.
There is more to this talented singer than you might have expected and ‘Raised On Radio’ gives you an example of that. Oh yes, next month you can hear Ronnie on the new MSG-album ‘Universal’ and I am sure that won’t be the last we hear from him in 2022.
HIGHLY Recommended
You’ve seen it first at 0dayrox
1. Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother (Grand Funk Railroad)
2. Backstreet Love Affair (Survivor)
3. No Smoke Without a Fire (Bad Company)
4. I Was Born To Love You (Queen)
5. Play The Game Tonight (Kansas)
6. Carolina County Ball (Elf)
7. Girl On The Moon (Foreigner)
8. Gypsy (Uriah Heep)
9. Voices (Russ Ballard)
10. All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
11. Since I’ve Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin)
Ronnie Romero – vocals
Srdjan Brankovic – guitars
Javi Garcia – bass
Andy C – drums
Alessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards
Additional Musicians:
Danny Gómez – lead guitar on “I Was Born To Love You”
Javier Reyes – lead guitar on “All Along The Watchtower”
Corina Minda – backing vocals on “All Along The Watchtower”
Pre Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Raised-Radio-Ronnie-Romero/dp/B09NRG2FKP
