So sometime in the late 1980s or early 90s,I heard Robert Earl Keen‘s the “Front Porch Song”, on one if the shows that Gene Shay produced here in Philly, and feel in love with his wit and music and I’ve been a fan ever since. Today Robert Earl Keen, Jr. (that’s the way I knew him first) celebrates his 57th birthday!!!
So on this date in 1970, while I was in my senior year in high school, Alex Staropoli,the keyboardist for the Italian symphonic prog rock band Rhapsody Of Fire was born! While I am not familiar with Alex on an individual basis, I have listened to Rhapsody of Fire/s latest release Dark Wings of Steel and enjoyed it particularly the keyboards!!
So this afternoon the soundtrack of the work was the 2013 release from Exivious – Liminal. When I first spotted the album on the iPhone at the beginning of the afternoon, I didn’t even remember downloading it to the phone let alone where I saw the album in the first place!! I had a vague memory of the album being on the ProgArchives’ list of Top 2013 Albums, but I wasn’t sure, then the music started and I was sure that I saw the album at ProgArchives! The album is in fact on the list well hidden down at number 86, tucked between the Neo Prog of Ego and the Psychedelic Space Rock of Drago. <(Note to self – Neo prog of Ego – check them out)
Today I was reviewing the Top Albums of 2013 at the ProgArchives at number 16 was a band that I had listened to earlier this year, Fatal Fusion. Their 2013 release is The Ancient Tale and was the soundtrack for several periods of time today. Earlier in the year I had listened to their 2010 release Land of the Sun. I liked both of the albums.
Fatal Fusion is a Norwegian crossover prog rock band strongly influenced by bands like King Crimson, Camel, Pink Floyd, ELP, Yes, Genesis, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Deep Purple from the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s and 90’s bands like Anekdoten, Spocks beard, IQ, Marillion, Toto, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden According to their biography the music cover a wide landscape, combining many musical styles from Jazz, Blues, Rock, Metal, Funk, Psychedelia, Ambient, Latin, and Classical music! No wonder I like their music!!
The Ancient Tale is composed of only five tracks and yet the combined length of the album is over 65 minutes!! Three of the tracks are over 14 minutes in length and the other two are over 8 minutes!! Each track is full of tempo and musical changes, that keeps the music continuously interesting!
The two core members of the band keyboardist Erlend Engebretsen and bassist Lasse Lie first played together in a band called No Name way back in 1986. After that band disbanded in 1993, they created a new band in 1997 called Hydra with Erlend’s younger brother Audun as the drummer. After the formation and disbanding of two more groups, Moonstone and Chrystal Blues, Fatal Fusion was born because of their desire to play more progressive material! Along the way the band recruited the other two members of the band: Knut Erik Grøntvedt was added to handle the vocals. He had only played in a few cover bands, and guitarist Stig Selnes who played in The Rumbling Tubes in the 1990’s, and Agathe in the 2000’s, before joining Fatal Fusion in mid 2008, he continued to play in both “Agathe” and “Fatal Fusion” for a while, before quiting “Agathe” in 2010, to fully concentrate on “Fatal Fusion” Got all that!!!
So the current line-up for the band is
Knut Erik Grøntvedt – Vocals
Erlend Engebretsen – Keyboards
Stig Selnes – Guitars
Lasse Lie – Bass
Audun Engebretsen – Drums & Percussion
So check them out at all the normal locations Facebook, MySpace and Reverbnation. Here’s a video for “Cry No More” from Land of the Sun
So tonight I was thinking, I would post a song from one of my favorite folksinger songwriters. The first one that popped into my head was John Gorka, thoughts of John were quickly replaced by thoughts of Mark Erelli. I listened to Mark’ most recent release Little Vigils the other night and was reminded of what a great songwriter he is. .So I thought that I’d post a video, maybe of one of my early favorites songs “They do it every day” but there was no Youtube video,for the song. Then I thought “Compass and Companion”,but then I spotted this video for his song “Volunteer” on Don Was’ My Damn Channel and I listened once again to this powerful song and again was blown away! Here’s what Don Was writes:
