Michael Bolton. You know the name and people of a certain age are likely to burst into a chorus of ‘How Am I Supposed to Live Without You’ on request. What a lot of people don’t know is that before he became a soft Rock icon and then eventually crossed over into the dark side of Soul, Pop and mushy ballads Bolton was something of an iconic AOR artist. Think a mixture of Foreigner, Bryan Adams and Survivor. Italian label, Frontiers are attempting to recapture those early glory days with a tribute album that focuses, mostly, on his early songs and forgotten AOR classics with ‘Steel Bars’.
The genesis of ‘Steel Bars – A Tribute To Michael Bolton’ came about when Serafino Perugino, President & Head of A&R for Frontiers Music Srl, had the idea to pull together a mix of newer vocalists on the label with established singers on the roster and have them pay tribute to an era of Bolton’s career that he is particularly fond of. And so, new names like Girish Pradhan (Girish And The Chronicles), Dave Mikulskis (a rising talent who is working with Jim Peterik), Sochan Kikon (About Us), Ana Nikolic (The Big Deal), Nevena Brankovic (The Big Deal), Santiago Ramonda (Stormwarning), Stefan Nykvist (Sarayasign), and James Robledo (Sinner’s Blood) appear alongside Steve Overland (FM), Gui Oliver (Landfall), Robbie LaBlanc (Find Me), and Ronnie Romero (Michael Schenker, Rainbow).
Michael Bolotin (as he was back then) started recording music as far back as 1975 but it was in Blackjack with notable guitarist Bruce Kulik (later to join Kiss during the 80s ‘no make up’ days) that he began to cut his hard rock teeth. They released two albums but it was on his self titled solo album in 1983 that Bolton, as he was now, began to impress. The songs on this tribute album are taken from this point in his career up until 1991’s ‘Time, Love and Tenderness’ album which was really the last album that Bolton did with any sort of Rock input or sound.
Frontiers’ production values on ‘Steel Bars’ go one of two ways, Replicating that gorgeous, smooth 80s sound that the over 50s grew up exposed to or bringing in a slightly heavier, more modern sound with a more European edge to it since that’s where the beating heart of most hard Rock and AOR resides these days. The album opens with an absolute double-whammy slice of joy in ‘Everybody’s Crazy’ and ‘Fools Game.’ The former is one of Bolton’s most beloved early classics and Girish Pradhan handles the vocal responsibility in style, coming across as a cracking mix of Lou Gramm and Kevin DuBrow. Great production with a slightly harder edge than the original makes this track a fitting opening indeed. “Fools Game’, meanwhile, with it’s chugging guitars and big keyboards is the perfect vehicle for FM’s lead singer Steve Overland. If there were ever a vocalist in Europe that could be compared to Michael Bolton it’s easily Steve Overland. He has the power, range and ability to sing a Gillette advert at the drop of a hat, just like Bolton, and ‘Fools Game’ is a walk in the park for this talented singer.
Elsewhere, the erstwhile Robbie LaBlanc helms the soft-rock anthem ‘Gina’ with some aplomb. LaBlanc’s powerful, effortless vocals are really suited to Michael Bolton’s back catalogue and the classic ‘New York’ 80s Pop/Rock sound is replicated with ease. Rainbow’s Ronnie Romero delivers the dramatic, moody and atmospheric ‘Don’t Tell Me It’s Over’ in a heady mix of 80s keyboards and a superb time-change chorus and Stefan Nykvist nails the anthemic ‘Call My Name’ on a sweeping tide of thunder-drums and a great guitar solo too as I am put in mind of the great AOR bands of the 80s like Survivor.
‘Wait on Love,’ featuring Ana Nikolic and Nevena Brankovic is an absolute masterclass of 80s vibes. Think Saraya, think Femme Fatale, think Romeo’s Daughter. They are all in there. Whoever had the idea to lead with female vocals on this track should be applauded as we get a song a modern artist like Chez Kane would die to record. It builds to a classic chorus with both women’s vocals giving off echoes of artists like Cher and the Wilson sisters of Heart. The flipside production, with heavier guitars and a more Euro-centric approach can be found on tracks like ‘Can’t Turn It Off’. Here some heavy riffing opens the track before Gui Oliver settles into giving us his best Lou Gramm impression as the Foreigner style keyboards run riot across one of the best executed tracks on the album.
The elephant in the room is that I haven’t mentioned the two biggest tracks on this tribute album yet and we’re nearly at the end. Both ‘How Can We Be Lovers’ and ‘Steel Bars’ were huge hits for Michael Bolton and, for me, were the most eagerly anticipated tracks on this release. It pains me to say that neither really lives up to the billing or anticipation. Sometimes a song is just so iconic it shouldn’t ever be covered. Maybe I was expecting too much or is it simply that I love both of those songs so much that I can’t conceive of anyone else but Bolton singing them. Who knows? Dave Mikulskis helms ‘How Can We Be Lovers’ and there’s just something missing. If you’ve got this far into this review then you’ll be able to interpret and understand what I say when I say that I think the track needed a Jimi Jamison to sing on it and not a Dave Bickler. It needs an edge in the vocals that just isn’t there. ‘Steel Bars’, meanwhile, feels a little powerless, a little lacking in umph. It feels like it’s been neutered or sanitised, playing somewhere in a lift or in the background of a conference or motivational lecture. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Sochan Kikan’s vocals but there’s nothing particularly engaging either.
When you listen to Santiago Ramonda sing the hell out of ‘Save Our Love’ you might wish, as I do, that he’d been given ‘Steel Bars’ or ‘How Can We Be Lovers’ instead. His vocals really capture the angst and the anguish and, dare I say it, the soul, that were all over Bolton’s original recordings of these songs. The production of ‘Save Our Love’ is top-notch too, making the track feel like it could have been lifted from any one of Frontiers’ AOR projects of the last 25 years. There’s a fantastic guitar solo here too, just to round things off with a bang.
Rock and AOR message boards have been pushing for some sort of Hard Rock version of Michael Bolton songs for about 30 years now, ever since the man himself stepped away from the genre and took the easy money that the Pop market provided him with. Well, in ‘Steel Bars’ the fans finally have their wish. Sure, it’s a shame that the two big ticket songs don’t quite live up to expectation but virtually every other song on this album does. There’s an urgency and intensity about the songs on offer here that will delight all fans of both Michael Bolton’s early work and the AOR genre in general which means three decades of wish lists and questions have now been answered satisfactorily. Well done Frontiers.
Tracklist: 1. Everybody’s Crazy 2. Fools Game 3. How Can We Be Lovers 4. Steel Bars 5. Wait on Love 6. Can’t Turn It Off 7. Save Our Love 8. Gina 9. Call My Name 10. Don’t Tell Me It’s Over 11. Desperate Heart Record Label: Frontiers Release Date: July 7th Buy ‘Steel Bars – A Tribute to Michael Bolton’ now
