Review: Drink A Toast To Innocence - A Tribute To Lite Rock

It is often said that in order for someone to be successful in a business venture, it is critical that they find their niche; their own unique position in the market, and address the needs of that underserved market segment. Andrew Curry has certainly done that in spades by producing a terrific new tribute album that focuses on a specific timeframe and sub-genre of popular music.

The album, "Drink A Toast To Innocence - A Tribute To Lite Rock" is a giant 28 song collection, spread over 2 CD's that are packed to the brim with excellent renditions of Lite Rock songs from the late '70's and early 80's. There will also be a 10 song vinyl edition. Sorry, but no 8 tracks or cassettes.

If you're 35 or older, you know every one of these songs and can probably sing along with them too! But age is no restriction on your potential for enjoying this music. These newly recorded tribute versions are performed by current independent bands and individual musicians who may not yet be familiar names, but I assure you, all of them are worthy of wider recognition for the quality of their songcraft.

Album Producer Andrew Curry

The idea began as a playlist on a Facebook page. Lite Rock fan Andrew Curry assembled a countdown of what he thought were the 20 greatest Lite Rock songs of all time. Curry described these songs as "the soundtrack of my youth". Eventually, the idea of doing a real album of cover versions developed and it was time to make it happen. The project was pitched on the fundraising website, Kickstarter and achieved its $10,000 goal in just 3 weeks! That should tell you something about not only the enduring popularity of this music, but also the costs involved in putting an album like this together. Things like song licensing, manufacturing & promotional costs add up quickly.

Contributing Artists David Myhr & Eytan Mirsky

Andrew's next task was getting musicians on board to record the songs. The first ones to sign on were Eytan Mirsky and Andy Reed (of An American Underdog). But Andrew recently told me, "I had an interesting sort of dance going with Mike Viola before he finally agreed. But when he did come aboard, it made securing other artists much easier to do. After all, I'm hardly a household name."

I asked Andrew at what point was he certain that the idea had wings. He replied, "I knew the project had real potential when Michael Carpenter submitted his video for "We Don't Talk Anymore". It showed that a major figure in the power pop world took this thing seriously enough to put in that extra work to help make the record buzzworthy. I had gotten a few tracks submitted by the time Michael sent me his video, and I really dug them all. But that specific moment is when I thought, "You know? This thing might actually work."

All the way from New South Wales, Australia, here's Michael Carpenter's video version of "We Don't Talk Anymore", originally a hit for Cliff Richard back in 1979. Nice job, Michael!

Kelly Jones

Other artists made less involved, but no less impressive initial entries. To present her idea for the England Dan & John Ford Coley song, "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight", Kelly Jones sent Andrew Curry a demo that was recorded on her iPhone! The song has a very gentle, sweet feel in that lo-fi demo version. The song was recorded properly in a studio for the album, but I can't help thinking it would have been a nice touch to work in the iPhone recording for the early 1st verse or so, since the song is about a phone call anyway.

Brandon Schott

As for other interesting stories, there are a few. But one of the best is about Brandon Schott's version of the Andrew Gold hit, "Thank You For Being A Friend". Brandon had the idea that a song about friendship should include lots of people (friends and fans and family) in the background of the song. So he put together a choir of people that included not only his parents and his kids, but also a bunch of other artists from the tribute album itself. Included in the background vocals are David Myhr, Andy Reed (of An American Underdog), Steven Wilson (of Plasticsoul), Joe Giddings, Paul Bertolino, Michael Simmons (of Popdudes), Eric Kern (of Vegas With Randolph) and radio personality Michael McCartney, who did the great K-tel style voiceovers for the Kickstarter fundraising videos.

Willie Wisely

There's only one song on the entire album that makes me itch a bit and that is Willie Wisely's percussion-heavy take on Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So Into You". After repeated listens, I feel that the track could have been greatly improved by doing a "single edit"; shortening the song and eliminating some distracting vocal excesses during the last minute or so, but the overall production is interesting. Willie certainly picked up on the "voodoo in the vibes" lyric in the first verse of the song. I do have to say that I was surprised to see that this track is to be included on the vinyl edition of the album. While this recording has merit, I'm not sure that it's one of the best choices to represent the album on what amounts to a 10 song sampler.

Vegas With Randolph

However, I do have my personal favorites, like this first rate version of the Little River Band's "Cool Change", done by Vegas With Randolph. THIS, my friends, is how to do a cover! It completely respects the song, keeping all signature parts intact, yet it sounds like the band who's playing the song; putting their identity on it, but not in an overwhelming way. By the way, this song does not appear on the vinyl version and it should.

Then, there are the musicians that do their darndest to replicate the original recording as best they can. Hailing from sunny Southern California, here are The Popdudes with their excellent version of Walter Egan's "Magnet & Steel". This makes me smile. If you like toy pianos, this is your jam!

There are almost too many highlights to mention without including the entire list of songs, but in particular, I got a charge out of Bleu's excellent replication of Player's "Baby Come Back"; still the best Hall & Oates song that Hall & Oates didn't write. Other favorites that scored high in originality include Mike Ruekberg's "Believe It Or Not", Greg Pope's reworking of Poco's "Crazy Love", Paul Bertolino's version of "Just Remember I Love You" by Firefall, and The Davenports' energetic take on "Just When I Needed You Most".

In conclusion, the best cover versions are, as my wife says, "different enough so it's fresh, but the same enough to where you can sing along if you want." I completely agree, and this collection is chock-full of recordings like that. In my many years of enjoying tribute albums, I have heard the good, the bad and the very ugly. This project is obviously a labour of love for the producer and for the musicians who played on it. In fact, there's so much consistently good material in this collection, from one track to the next, that I honestly feel that this is easily one of the very best and most enjoyable tribute albums ever done by anybody, and I do not say that lightly, folks. This album is a great one and you should go buy it right now.

Here's what's on the CD's.

The vinyl edition will include:
SIDE ONE:
1. Steal Away - Mike Viola
2. The Things We Do For Love - David Myhr
3. I'd Really Love To See You Tonight - Kelly Jones
4. We Don't Talk Anymore - Michael Carpenter
5. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Eytan Mirsky

SIDE TWO:
1. Baby Come Back - Bleu
2. More Than I Can Say - Linus Of Hollywood
3. Thunder Island - An American Underdog*
4. Shake It - Cliff Hillis
5. So Into You - Willie Wisely

(* Thunder Island is a vinyl exclusive!)

The album will be available on Monday April 29th, but you can pre-order the CD or the download version right now on Bandcamp. On the 29th, the full album will be available there and will also find its way onto the usual outlets like CD Baby, Amazon and iTunes. The official website, MonstersOfLiteRock.com, is where you will be able to find links to where you can get the album on the 29th. It's up and running now, so you can sign up via email to be notified when new info is available.