BERNIE CHIARAVALLE – Long Before I Knew You (2022)
BERNIE CHIARAVALLE’s lengthy association with Michael McDonald goes back to the late Eighties – Bernie is the guitarist since 1988 – but he’s also fashioned an intriguing solo career away from the Doobie Brothers legend. They initially met through Chiaravalle’s work with Ambrosia’s David Pack, and Chiaravalle then contributed extensively on McDonald’s Blue Obsession and subsequent albums.
Like many artists Chiaravalle had plenty of time during the pandemic to not only write new music, but also explore the past. Bernie dug through old recordings and re-recorded about 25 of them, from which he then chose 17 for this very nice new solo album titled ”Long Before I Knew You”.
Bernie is actually playing all instruments himself on these re-recordings which is impressive in itself. The songs were written in the very early 80’s to the early 90’s, so expect classic smooth AOR / Westcoast here.
One of my absolute fave songs on this album is ”Swear Your Love” with a lovely Toto beat and a touch of early 1980’s! Funny, even the title has Toto connections considering the Steve Lukather tune by the same title from his ‘Lukather’ album…
