Review: Lonerider – Attitude
Escape Music (April 26th 2019)
Reviewer: Stephen Brophy
Anytime you hear of a project that involves Steve Overland you tend to take a little more notice than usual, and Lonerider is no exception to that rule. But when Steve’s partner in crime from Shadowman, Steve Morris on guitar, is also involved you sit up a little straighter, then you see the band is filled out with Chris Childs (Thunder) on bass and the legendary Simon Kirke (Free/Bad Company) on drums then this has all the possibilities of being a special album.
Released by Escape Music Ltd at the end of April this was certainly an album that got caught in the flurry of recent releases, but please go check it out, there are some really excellent songs on this one, Steve’s vocals are allowed to breathe, there’s great variety between AOR, bluesy rock and with the likes of ‘Yesterday Heroes‘ perhaps even a touch more southern rock or an Americana feel. What’s never in question here is the quality on show. Musically, how it’s put together, the production and the songs themselves are just top notch. There’s something really powerful in Steve Morris’s guitar work, and it just sounds so good here all the way through.
Anyone that is a fan of FM, Shadowman or just Rock in general should get something from this album, it’s got plenty to give and is constructed so well, and there’s a terrific flow right through. Naturally with such a well known and recognisable voice it’s going to have you drawing comparisons to FM/Shadowman etc…. but this band is it’s own entity, and although it exists is a similar space to those bands it stands on it’s own feet.
Sometimes when a band like this is put together there’s just no soul to it, you can’t feel any passion, but pardon the pun, there’s definitely attitude in this one. Strongest songs on this album are probably the track of the ‘Lonerider‘ with the blues riff running down the middle of it, the excellent ‘Angel Without Wings‘ which grabs you back time and again, a song I think that will continue to bounce around the head long after the stereo has been turned off, a little different in sound and all the better for it. And ‘Yesterday Heroes‘ which seems to float along and benefits massively from the subtle treatment it gets.
So where does the Lonerider project go, I’m not sure, I guess it’s worrying they’ve not setup a Website or Social Media page for the band, but it doesn’t mean that if schedules allow and either the participants enjoyed it or it did well with fans there won’t be a follow up, it would be most welcome. Lonerider offer something different from what the bands the members here already play with, and it’s always such a pleasure to hear Steve’s voice on anything, but this has good rocking and great melody. Some live dates would be of course very welcome if they were to materialise and lets hope that second album gets done, this one is a cracker and would be a shame to just have the possibility that more people miss it than hear it, the more I listen to it the more I like it.
