Shaw Blades 'Influence' album

It’s the announcement Shaw/Blades fans have been waiting for. The duo—Styx/Damn Yankees guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw and Night Ranger/Damn Yankees bassist/vocalist Jack Blades—will hit the road once again starting November 7 in Petaluma, CA and concluding in December 8 in Nashville, TN in support of their critically acclaimed INFLUENCE album.

After the first round of tour dates ended May 31 in Chicago, Tommy and Jack promised their fans that they would be back for another trek after taking time to tour with their respective bands.

In addition to songs from INFLUENCE—which was released March 6 on VH1 Classic Records--fans will get a dose of some of their favorite Styx, Night Ranger and Damn Yankees songs, all performed acoustically. It’s an intimate evening of music courtesy of Tommy, Jack and guitarist Will Evankovich (of American Drag).

Speaking about a concert in Alexandria, VA earlier this year, Rick Landers of Modernguitars.com hailed: “Jack and Tommy have pulled together a winning act out of the ashes of classic rock ballads that is as entertaining as stand up comedy as it is musically. This is a show not to be missed.”

Before the tour kicks off, Jack and Tommy will make a return visit to the “Howard Stern Show” on Wednesday, October 24 to talk about the upcoming tour and perform songs live. The duo first appeared on the Sirius Satellite Radio morning show in March.

INFLUENCE is the duo’s first album since their recently re-released 1995 debut, HALLUCINATION. Like the debut--and unlike their history-carving decades as icons in the more hard-rock minded Styx, Night Ranger and Damn Yankees--the latest release is rooted in acoustic guitar and organic production, harvesting a decade of musical influences into 11 tracks (on which Blades and Shaw played all the music except for drums and the occasional keyboards). With classics from the ‘60s and ‘70s including the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work,” INFLUENCE offers a track-by-track chronology of the musical era that helped define modern rock.

The album has been garnering rave reviews since its release. Greg Prato of All Music Guide praised, “Impressively consistent from beginning to end, INFLUENCE is certainly one of the better ‘all covers' albums of recent times.”

One of the most prolific duos in the history of hard rock, Tommy and Jack have sold more than 50 million albums amongst their three bands, scored 12 Top 10 singles on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart, debuted 16 albums in the Billboard “Top 200” albums chart, and share joint songwriting credits for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Cher and Alice Cooper.

biography
Truly brilliant songs become classics not because they’re timepieces, but because they’re timeless, a characteristic that rings true through every track Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades pay homage to on INFLUENCE.

The sophomore release from Shaw/Blades, INFLUENCE is the duo’s first album since their recently re-released 1995 debut, HALLUCINATION. Like the debut – and unlike their history-carving decades as icons in the more hard-rock minded Styx, Night Ranger and Damn Yankees – the latest release is rooted in acoustic guitar and organic production, harvesting a decade of musical influences into 11 tracks. From the Mamas and the Papas’ 1963 classic “California Dreamin’,” to Orleans’ 1975 breakthrough “Dance with Me,” INFLUENCE offers a track-by-track chronology of the musical era that helped define modern rock.

“You can always tell a brilliant song, whether it was written 30 years ago or yesterday,” says Blades, who’s the bassist in Night Ranger and Damn Yankees, but along with Shaw played all the music on the album except for drums and the occasional keyboards. “Every song we picked is identifiable in its own right, and they’re all immediately recognizable. What does that tell you? That the songs are the stars. That’s what we wanted to do on this record, we wanted the songs to be the stars. I think that’s what we accomplished.”

Whether the songs are delivered in faithful tribute, as is the case with Simon & Garfunkel’s epic masterpiece “Sounds of Silence,” or given a modern rock transfusion, as in the duo’s 1966 folk anthem “I Am a Rock,” the results are the same, sparkling like a beacon illuminating the mainstream roots of rock and roll’s formative years. “I cringe at the thought of Paul Simon hearing our stuff,” laughs Blades, only half-jokingly. “I honor his spirit so much, and I’m such a huge fan. As far as I’m concerned, they invented the word genius to go along with him, and we just wanted to make sure that we did their songs justice. Tommy and I have that special symbiotic relationship that doesn’t come along a lot. Simon & Garfunkel also had it, we have a reverence to it, and it was something that we just wanted to dig into.”

“As writers, we’re like two old friends who finish each other’s sentences,” adds Shaw. “We became best friends as a result of the music and the experiences we’ve had because of it.” But INFLUENCE isn’t about the experiences of Shaw/Blades, it’s about the inspiration that helped create the experiences. “This album has been years in the making,” continues the Styx/Damn Yankees guitarist. “The recording process didn’t take years, but the concept had been looming in our conversations for a long time. We’d always sit around with a couple of guitars and play songs we both knew from or younger days, spontaneous harmonizing and all that, and we slowly eased into the idea of making this record.”

One of the most prolific duos in the history of hard rock, Shaw and Blades have sold more than 50 million albums amongst their three bands, scored 12 Top 10 singles on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart, debuted 16 albums in the Billboard “Top 200” albums chart, and share joint songwriting credits for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith, Cher and Alice Cooper. Even so, INFLUENCE offered the pair an invigorating musical freedom. “With Shaw/Blades, we’re able to take liberties that our respective bands couldn’t do,” offers Blades. “We need to be Styx-sounding, we need to fit in that Night Ranger world, and we even need to think about Damn Yankees, so that’s what’s fun about Shaw/Blades -- we get to be our alter-egos when we want to be, yet we can truly be ourselves. We grew up singing harmonies and songs with massive vocals, so it’s a wonderful thing to have that freedom here. This was a complete labor of love.”

Just as remarkable as the timeless translations of the music, is the transcendent eeriness of the lyrics, as many of the folk-inspired epics from the peace-and love-filled late ‘60s make a seamless translation to the new millennium. Consider the Stephen Stills-penned, Buffalo Springfield protest anthem “For What It’s Worth,” rooted in the anti-war sentiments of 1967, ringing just as true nearly 40 years later. The Zombies’ “Time of the Season” may have been a better thematic fit at the original Woodstock than amidst the festival’s anniversary line-up, but in stripping down the progressive stylings that marked the Yes nugget “Your Move,” the resulting chants of “All we are saying is, give peace a chance” echo in the chambers of new world politics. Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Lucky Man” is nothing short of bone-chilling.

The tracks that constitute INFLUENCE are more than just the creative core of Shaw/Blades, they speak to the cultural core of America. Like the artists that pay them tribute, they are timeless.

—Paul Gargano, 08/06

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Shaw Blades - Influence