Jim Peterik is best known for his participation in
Survivor. After he left
Survivor he did a project entitled "World Stage" with many fellow musicians and friends. I must admit that I only knew Jim from his
Survivor days but
Jim Peterik has been a hard-working songwriter for the likes of 38 Special and even Sammy Hagar.
Jim Peterik set up a show called "Night of World Stage", where he invited some of his collaborators to sing with him on this night. Most tracks on this disc are from that performance.
Let's review the good tracks first.
"Hold On Loosely" was a hit for 38 Special and Don Barnes joins Jim for this song. I really like this track because it is a powerful display of southern Rock.
Kelly Keagy is performing Night Ranger's Top ten hit "
Sister Christian". This is an extended version with a huge backing choir.
Kevin Chalfant has an amazing voice. He holds up the
Survivor track
"I can't hold back". The song has a great melodic chorus with huge backing vocals once again.
"Vehicle" is pure Blues featuring Buddy Guy. Check out the sound on Buddy's guitar. I was a bit surprised to learn that this was recorded by
Jim Peteriks band before
Survivor "Ides of March". Really cool.
Once again Kevin Chalfant amazes me on
"I've got a lot to learn about Love". This song has an amazing drive with a great guitar riff spiced with a few artificial harmonics. This is the best track on the CD - without doubt.
Unfortunately there is also some insignificant songs like
"The Search is over", again a song from
Survivor's "Vital Signs" album. This is duet between up-comings Brian Anders and Kelly Moulik. A bit too sleepy in my opinion
"Rockin' into the Night" was a huge hit for 38 Special. I think that this track is total standard lacking some punch lines. The song is way too ordinary in my opinion.
The 5 studio tracks are mostly ballads with only one strong song called
"The Day America Cried", which is about September 11th. The song is breathtaking with a guitar that sounds like it is crying. Johnny VanZant is helping out on this one and it is for sure a track that I will play on the fatal day. When hearing this song you get your own inner movie rolling about the things you remember from the tragic day. Of course a very emotional song.
It is hard to give an overall opinion because this cd covers diverse styles and has different performers. There are some amazing vocal performances on this cd. I know that I have to checkout Kevin Chalfant's band Two Fires.
Even though I don't like all tracks the live performances are top-notch. Therefore it is kind of anti climates with the studio songs because they are not very memorable. I actually think that they weaken this release quite a bit, so it is with mixed emotions that I write this review.
You have got to admire the fact that
Jim Peterik has been making some significant contributions to rock history.
These might have been smash hits in America, but unfortunately most songs never got the same breakthrough in
Europe with the exception of
Survivor's soundtrack hits. Therefore I may not have the same relationship to most songs as Americans, which are familiar with them.
If you are a fan of vocal oriented Rock or
Survivor you should check this cd out.
Written by
Michael Monday, September 2, 2002
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