TageRyche
Senior Member
JIMMY WAYNE JAMISON
S/T
Iconoclassic Records - 2024
The latest archival release for the late Jimi Jamson (ex-Survivor) is billed as a bit a sea change for the noted rock singer.
Released under the moniker Jimmy Wayne Jamison (aka his real birth name) and spearheaded by former Survivor bandmate Jim Peterik, the Jimmy Wayne Jamison CD was hyped up as a country rock release.
The album was originally recorded in 2007 but it was never released until last year. The CD booklet has an essay that delves into the reasons for this as well as the album's creative process. Add in a track-by-track description of each song and you are well positioned to know as much information about the album as possible.
But is it a "country - rock" album? For me, the jury is still a little out on that. There's a couple of songs where I can definitely hear some country influences, but for the most part I think the album stays pretty squarely on the rock side of the agenda.
Whatever you end up thinking as you listen for yourself, there's no denying that this is a pretty darn good record though.
The interesting thing to me is that while all these versions of the songs have never been released before, fully six of the album's eleven tracks found life in re-recorded versions of themselves on other releases.
The Jimmy Wayne Jamison album kicks off with one of those songs. The "Live Life" song ended up as a track on the Jim Peterik solo album Above the Storm, which is an album I just love. With Peterik chiefly involved in the songwriting, playing and production of the album, the fact he ended up repurposing some songs for his own projects isn't all that surprising. As for this version of the song, this is where I first noticed that whatever country influence the project may have, it didn't make it to this song. In fact, "Live Life" is pretty close to the version from Peterik that I heard first. Great song though.
I still wasn't feeling a country music vibe on the song "Love You All Over The World" either. The mid-tempo ballad surprised me with how much I liked it though.
The first tinge of that country feel came on the song "Runaway Train". It's got a fast moving uptempo pace and the instrumentation does lend itself to feeling at home as a country music track. And when you factor in the lyrics focusing on hopping a train to get away from it all, that kind of sealed the deal for me.
There's also a BIT of a country feel to the song "Strong at the Broken Places". In the liner notes, Jim Peterik talked about how this one is one of the favorite tracks he ever wrote for Jamison, while original A&R man Jeremy Holliday references the song as a "tough Southern rock song". That might be a bit more accurate than "country song" because along with a cool sounding song title, this one definitely rocks pretty hard and I also think it is one of the best songs on the album.
The next two tracks on the album found a different original release on the Jimi Jamison / Jim Peterik album Extra Moments. That release is one of the few Jamison releases I don't own so I can't do a side-by-side comparison but I did like these original versions quite a bit. "The song "I Wanna Touch You There" may immediately seem like it is some kind of "dirty" lyrical track but while it does play like an anatomical tour of someone's body in rocking format, it is a totally classy track from start to finish. As for "Heart of a Woman", the song's pace moves back and forth for the length of the song but Jamison's vocals are what really give this song its dramatic presence. It's kind of funny that he makes the song his so strongly when it was written entirely by Jim Peterik about his own wife.
The song "Sound of Home" ended up being used on the self-titled debut album from Peterik's band Pride of Lions. And man, that was such a standout track on album chock full of highlights. The version that appears on the Jimmy Wayne Jamison album still rocks quite generously but there's a definite shift in tone. Jamison's vocals don't quite go for the higher vocal register here. But I like the way that different shading changed how the song came out while still maintaining what I liked about it from that Pride of Lions version.
"Alive" ended up as a bonus track on the European version of the Jimi Jamison release Crossroads Moment. Here's it is a solid mid-tempo number that has a strong presence as you listen to the track play.
"Til You Love Someone" has an interesting lyrical take as the song's tempo moves from mid-to-uptempo.
I found myself really digging the gentle guitar that plays throughout the "Come Dancing" track. It kind of plays back and forth as a country sounding track and a slow-to-mid-tempo ballad. But man I love the way the vocals and music play to create just a great track without feeling necessary to build up to a more intense delivery.
The album closes out with the song "A Kiss to Remember You By". It's a track I first heard on Jim Peterik's Above The Storm solo album. That version is really good, but I really like hearing Jamison singing the lyrics here as well. Slow in spots then rising to more of a rocking flourish, the track caps off the album in a strong manner.
While I don't really feel that the Jimmy Wayne Jamison album is all that much of a country album in and of itself, the various flourishes of that particular song style does lend a nice spin to the tracks they appear on. But what really does this album justice is that it gives us another chance to hear the great vocals from the late Jimi Jamison. He's still much missed but through archival releases like this, we get to hear new material or at the very least "new" interpretations of songs and remember just how amazing he was as a singer.
S/T
Iconoclassic Records - 2024
The latest archival release for the late Jimi Jamson (ex-Survivor) is billed as a bit a sea change for the noted rock singer.
Released under the moniker Jimmy Wayne Jamison (aka his real birth name) and spearheaded by former Survivor bandmate Jim Peterik, the Jimmy Wayne Jamison CD was hyped up as a country rock release.
The album was originally recorded in 2007 but it was never released until last year. The CD booklet has an essay that delves into the reasons for this as well as the album's creative process. Add in a track-by-track description of each song and you are well positioned to know as much information about the album as possible.
But is it a "country - rock" album? For me, the jury is still a little out on that. There's a couple of songs where I can definitely hear some country influences, but for the most part I think the album stays pretty squarely on the rock side of the agenda.
Whatever you end up thinking as you listen for yourself, there's no denying that this is a pretty darn good record though.
The interesting thing to me is that while all these versions of the songs have never been released before, fully six of the album's eleven tracks found life in re-recorded versions of themselves on other releases.
The Jimmy Wayne Jamison album kicks off with one of those songs. The "Live Life" song ended up as a track on the Jim Peterik solo album Above the Storm, which is an album I just love. With Peterik chiefly involved in the songwriting, playing and production of the album, the fact he ended up repurposing some songs for his own projects isn't all that surprising. As for this version of the song, this is where I first noticed that whatever country influence the project may have, it didn't make it to this song. In fact, "Live Life" is pretty close to the version from Peterik that I heard first. Great song though.
I still wasn't feeling a country music vibe on the song "Love You All Over The World" either. The mid-tempo ballad surprised me with how much I liked it though.
The first tinge of that country feel came on the song "Runaway Train". It's got a fast moving uptempo pace and the instrumentation does lend itself to feeling at home as a country music track. And when you factor in the lyrics focusing on hopping a train to get away from it all, that kind of sealed the deal for me.
There's also a BIT of a country feel to the song "Strong at the Broken Places". In the liner notes, Jim Peterik talked about how this one is one of the favorite tracks he ever wrote for Jamison, while original A&R man Jeremy Holliday references the song as a "tough Southern rock song". That might be a bit more accurate than "country song" because along with a cool sounding song title, this one definitely rocks pretty hard and I also think it is one of the best songs on the album.
The next two tracks on the album found a different original release on the Jimi Jamison / Jim Peterik album Extra Moments. That release is one of the few Jamison releases I don't own so I can't do a side-by-side comparison but I did like these original versions quite a bit. "The song "I Wanna Touch You There" may immediately seem like it is some kind of "dirty" lyrical track but while it does play like an anatomical tour of someone's body in rocking format, it is a totally classy track from start to finish. As for "Heart of a Woman", the song's pace moves back and forth for the length of the song but Jamison's vocals are what really give this song its dramatic presence. It's kind of funny that he makes the song his so strongly when it was written entirely by Jim Peterik about his own wife.
The song "Sound of Home" ended up being used on the self-titled debut album from Peterik's band Pride of Lions. And man, that was such a standout track on album chock full of highlights. The version that appears on the Jimmy Wayne Jamison album still rocks quite generously but there's a definite shift in tone. Jamison's vocals don't quite go for the higher vocal register here. But I like the way that different shading changed how the song came out while still maintaining what I liked about it from that Pride of Lions version.
"Alive" ended up as a bonus track on the European version of the Jimi Jamison release Crossroads Moment. Here's it is a solid mid-tempo number that has a strong presence as you listen to the track play.
"Til You Love Someone" has an interesting lyrical take as the song's tempo moves from mid-to-uptempo.
I found myself really digging the gentle guitar that plays throughout the "Come Dancing" track. It kind of plays back and forth as a country sounding track and a slow-to-mid-tempo ballad. But man I love the way the vocals and music play to create just a great track without feeling necessary to build up to a more intense delivery.
The album closes out with the song "A Kiss to Remember You By". It's a track I first heard on Jim Peterik's Above The Storm solo album. That version is really good, but I really like hearing Jamison singing the lyrics here as well. Slow in spots then rising to more of a rocking flourish, the track caps off the album in a strong manner.
While I don't really feel that the Jimmy Wayne Jamison album is all that much of a country album in and of itself, the various flourishes of that particular song style does lend a nice spin to the tracks they appear on. But what really does this album justice is that it gives us another chance to hear the great vocals from the late Jimi Jamison. He's still much missed but through archival releases like this, we get to hear new material or at the very least "new" interpretations of songs and remember just how amazing he was as a singer.
