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Back
again on the Surface.- No actually he's always been here, but has
mainly written Music for other artists. Meanwhile there's a record of
more than 200 of his song, which have been in the charts. One of the
most famous one's has been 'God Gave Rock'n'Roll To You', which has
been adopted by Kiss, who gave it a commercial success. It's a track
from the early seventies, Russ has recorded together with Argent first.
Over all those many years inbetween, this musician and songwriter has
created so much music and has released quite a few solo albums.
Whereby you can realize, that in the past it as more the rock'n'Roll
side beeing the focus, while nowadays it is more the lyric note. He
himself says, that this is a matter of personal developement, getting
older and more major. - I personally remember the excellent 'Barnet
Dogs' album and the hardrocking songs 'Beware' and 'Rene Didn't Do It'
or the rhythmic tune 'I'm A Scorpio' from the album 'At The Third
Stroke'- These are all songs created in the seventies. Later on Russ
had an success with 'Voices', a sort of esoteric song. However, Russ
is a person, who is very much aware about his surrounding and the
world itself and other humans. And all this he has now put in his new
release 'Book Of Love'. No, he ain't expecting a huge success but as
he says so, - if this album gets only one person to think about things,
then the goal is already reached.
Now, you can think whatever you want. In the end it's all a matter of
taste, what's up to the music.
Russ has come to Munich now, ot introduce his new piece to us
journalists and media people in form of an accoustic set. Same time, he
reminds us about all his great songs, he's written for other musicians.
Russ presents us a mixture of new material from 'Book Of Love' and 'New
York Groove', or 'Beware' (see setlist lefthandside).-
He is accompanied by his two longtime partners Chris Winter (guitar) and
Steve Jones (keyb.) And although Russ ain't what you call a -
Reach for the Stars - frontman, he can manage in the end, that the
audiance here clap their hands and sing along with - yeah sort of....:-)
- 'till the finale, which is of course ‚God Gave Rock’n’Roll To
You’.
You can feel, that this first class musicians still has fun to live up
within his creativity also on stage. He reminds us further about 'Winning',
which has been a smashsong for Santana and about 'So You Win Again'
which has been recorded by Hot Chocolate. And of course we all know
Rainbow's version of 'Since You've Been Gone'- Every now and then I hear
an ohhh and ahhh in the audiance beeing surprised about a piece of
music, they know but weren't aware 'till now, that it was written by
Russ Ballard as well.
Just to get it straight again... this man is one of the biggest and most
successful songwriters in Rock'n'Roll and beyond. There is only
one thing, he's never reached, and this is an international break
through as an artist on stage. But I'm pretty sure, he doesn't need that
anymore . Because everybody who's got a decent musical knowledge and
understanding knows who he is anyway .
See also Diary
for Showcase - Party - Pics.
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