Robby Steinhardt and Solar Studios announce Robby’s first and only solo recording, Not in Kansas Anymore. Release date: October 25th, 2021.
You know him as the legendary violinist, vocalist, and frontman for the band KANSAS, recording 9 albums that reached gold, platinum, and double platinum status, and is now making another mark on the world with his first and only solo album.
The new album, Not in Kansas Anymore is a powerful, well-thought-out offering of Prog Rock magic. Timely songs with incredible arrangements and virtuoso performances. Robby’s vocals and signature electric violin come through on this continuous work labeled a “Prog Opera”.
In his only interview for the project, he spoke with Bill Shafer of PBS. Steinhardt was asked what the meaning behind the title Not in Kansas Anymore was. Steinhardt responded, “It’s not slight against the band, no never! My time with Kansas defined a big part of my life, of which I am very proud of. Ever since The Wizard of OZ, those words have become an American axiom for moving forward, you can never go back etc.” Robby laughed, “I guess it has a special meaning when it is fixed to me.”
The album, produced by Michael Thomas Franklin, is his latest production since the highly acclaimed Jon Anderson 1000 Hands Chapter One. Franklin used a similar approach using a large cast of renowned musicians to lend their talents. Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Steve Morse of Deep Purple/Dixie Dregs, Billy Cobham of Mahavishnu Orchestra, Bobby Kimball of Toto, Chuck Leavell of The Rolling Stones, Liberty Devitto (Drummer on Billy Joel’s hits), Jim Gentry, Pat Travers, Billy Ashbaugh (Moody Blues/Pat Benatar), Lisa Fischer (longtime vocalist for The Rolling Stones), 1000 Hands members Michael Franklin, Tommy Calton, Tim Franklin, Jocelyn Hsu, Rayford Griffin and Benoit Lajeunesse and many others including Orchestra and Choir.
The songs provide powerful lyrics, hard to forget choruses, combined with crafty playing. All this combined with Franklin’s lavish and complicated arrangements makes listening toNot in Kansas Anymore a wonderful hour well spent. The stunning album artwork created by Tom Lupo of Magnificent Pictures and subliminal song quotes from the Wizard of OZ are another added feature to this complex Prog Opera. Currently, four videos are in the works.
Promo video:
Not in Kansas Anymore, Digital Download, CD and preorder LP with free Digital Download can be found at: www.robbysteinhardtofficial.com
Robby was a big fan of local vinyl vendors. Here is where you will be able can to find LPs and CDs locally www.solarmusic.com/
Bill Shafer Growing Bolder at PBS Growing Bolder episode featuring Robby in 2018 before he started the project can be found here: https://growingbolder.com/stories/robby-steinhardts-unlikely-incredible-journey/
Six months after the release of the critically acclaimed album ‘COMMON GROUND‘, Big Big Train are pleased to announce a new album ‘WELCOME TO THE PLANET’, due out on January 28th, 2022 on their own label, English Electric Recordings.
The band have recorded a video announcing the new album, which you can watch here:
Big Big Train founder Gregory Spawton explains the short time between albums: “The experience of the pandemic has shown us that we need to make the best use of our time on Earth. With that in mind and with new band members on board giving us a fresh head of steam, we decided on a speedy return to the studio to write and record Welcome To The Planet.”
As with ‘COMMON GROUND’, ‘WELCOME TO THE PLANET’ sees Big Big Train retain their progressive roots but also take influence from all spheres of music. The album’s opener ‘Made From Sunshine’, co-written by guitarist Dave Foster and singer David Longdon, has guitar lines redolent of Johnny Marr and vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Finn Brothers/Crowded House, with violinist Clare Lindley sharing lead vocals with Longdon.
Elsewhere on the album, keyboard player Carly Bryant gets her first Big Big Train writing credit and lead vocal on the captivating title track. The two recent singles ‘The Connection Plan’ and ‘Lanterna’ are included along with a winter themed song ‘Proper Jack Froster’, a bittersweet tale of childhood. The album is completed by the delicate acoustic ‘Capitoline Venus’, the beautiful ‘Oak And Stone’ and a pair of dazzling instrumentals, ‘A Room With No Ceiling’ and ‘Bats In The Belfry’, written by guitarist/keyboardist Rikard Sjöblom and drummer Nick D’Virgilio respectively.
For their March 2022 UK tour, which will be their most extensive to date and which will culminate with a show at the prestigious London Palladium, David Longdon (lead vocals, flute), Nick D’Virgilio (drums, vocals), Rikard Sjöblom (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Greg Spawton (bass), Carly Bryant (keyboards, guitars, vocals), Dave Foster (guitars) and Clare Lindley (violin, vocals) will be joined by a five piece brass ensemble. In addition to two further UK shows in September, the band expects to announce North American and continental European tour dates shortly.
We are looking for ambitious, curious, and hard-working young musicians!
Have you ever dreamed of performing live on stage with a famous musician? The Paul Green Rock Academy (PGRA) makes that dream come true!
The Paul Green Rock Academy (PGRA) is the latest company from Master Teacher, Paul Green, and is the only rock school dedicated to serious musicians. Having just completed an incredibly successful tour with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame artist, Jon Anderson of Yes, the school is accepting new students and opening new locations to provide more opportunities to more young musicians.
The program at PGRA offers an immersive music education for students between the ages of 12 and 18 who are selected by audition for their musical prowess, showmanship, dedication, ambition, and ability to share the stage with professional musicians as they tour the world.
Paul Green has been teaching music to students of all ages for over 30 years. He is the original founder of School of Rock, but PGRA is his dream school, as he teaches only students determined to learn. At PGRA, all the teaching is done by Paul, and the students have incredible opportunities to tour, play with amazing guest artists, and to get a proper and focused music education designed to prepare them to become professional musicians.
Jon Anderson with the PGRA – photo by John Barry
In the summer of 2019, their students opened for Yes legend Jon Anderson’s “1000 Hands” show, leading Jon to want to restart the tradition of playing shows with PGRA students and eventually to the summer tour they just completed (which was rescheduled from 2020 due to the Covid virus).
Jon enjoyed this summer tour so much that he wants to tour with PGRA again in 2022. The plan is to do 30-40 shows with Jon in 2022, all over the US but also internationally (Europe) if Covid restrictions allow.
“Boy oh boy what a special treat it was for us all…27 teens on the first leg, then 25 on the second…they were all magnificent and a joy to be around…
Paul Green, bless him, is a master of getting things done…the teens were shy, yet wild and crazy beautiful…but Paul made sure the shows worked…like the perfect storm…they all played their hearts out and put on a very wonderful show every time…
Currently, with locations in Philadelphia PA and Wilton CT, Paul Green Rock Academy plans to open four additional locations in Brooklyn, Fairfield CT, Wexford PA (suburban Pittsburgh), and Lancaster PA. Plans for the 2022 tour, along with some interest from some other legendary artists, including a very big name in the punk rock world, have both necessitated and provided the opportunity for expansion. The student limit is determined by the number of students per instrument and the number of good shows that the school can supply for the students.
Students who join PGRA’s program can expect to play up to 40 shows per year with the school, including a tour in the summer.
PGRA is currently looking for ambitious, curious, and hard-working young musicians! Audition now and let the Paul Green Rock Academy make your rock dreams come true!
We’re absolutely delighted to be able to reveal the amazing artwork created for us by multi-award-winning British illustrator, author, and musician Martin Springett ( https://martinspringett.com/ ). Martin has beautifully incorporated the Festival’s traditional sun symbol, which has appeared on every RoSFest poster since the very first edition, the newly adopted frigate bird emblem, representing perseverance and strength which reflects our commitment and determination to take the festival into the future, and the personification of Spring bursting forth from a fabulous bloom.
Martin has been an illustrator of fantasy book covers and children’s picture books since 1984, when he illustrated the covers for Guy Gavriel Kay’s classic fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry. Martin’s Fionavar covers were published worldwide and are still in print.
He has won the Aurora Award for fantasy illustration, the Ruth Schwartz Award in the children’s picture book field for The Nightwalker, and was nominated for the Governor Generals Award for his illustrations in Richard Thompson’s book, Who. Other book titles featuring Martin’s illustrations include Mei Ming and The Dragon’s Daughter, The Follower, and Too Many Suns.
As a writer, Martin authored and illustrated his first book, Jousting with Jesters in 2006. In 2011, Fitzhenry and Whiteside published his Breakfast on a Dragon’s Tail: And Other Book Biteswhile Kate & Pippin: An Unlikely Friendship (2012), written by Martin and featuring photographs by his sister, Isobel, has won numerous accolades including The Blue Spruce award.
As a musician, Martin recorded his first album in 1969; Under the Mountain is a setting of J R R Tolkien’s poems from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. As the founding member of The Gardening Club, he has released six albums under that name plus four solo albums.
New studio album • Limited edition SDE-exclusive CD with bonus tracks • Signed CDs • Limited coloured vinyl. First album in 17 years • SDE exclusive CD
arly in 2022, Tears For Fears will release The Tipping Point, their first studio album in over 17 years. Furthermore, SDE is pleased to announce that, in collaboration with the band and their record label (Concord Music), we are taking pre-orders (via the SDE shop) for a unique global exclusive deluxe CD edition which features three bonus songs. This will not be available anywhere else (including in Japan and America!).
Seven years in the making, and well into their fifth decade as collaborators and friends, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith have defied the odds, seen off the doubters, jumped around between record labels, changed management, naval-gazed, almost split up again, ditched the first version of the new album and have come back with a superb 10-track record that embraces the strengths of each band member and most importantly sounds like Tears For Fears!
SDE has heard the whole album and can confirm that The Tipping Point is full of brilliant pop songs that traverse darkness and light and at times chart both personal and global crises. The title track is the first single and you can preview this below.
Roland Orzabal says, “Before everything went so right with this album, everything first had to go wrong, it took years, but something happens when we put our heads together. We’ve got this balance, this push-me-pull-you thing – and it works really well.” Curt Smith agrees, “If that balance doesn’t work on a Tears For Fears album, the whole thing just doesn’t work. To put it in simple terms, a Tears For Fears record and what people perceive to be the sound of Tears For Fears – is the stuff we can both agree on.”
The band had initially started writing the new record with some of today’s hit songwriters (2017’s ‘I Love You But I’m Lost’ was co-written with Bastille’s Dan Smith and Mark Crew) which was an idea suggested by Tears For Fears previous management and what Roland and Curt pithily refer to as “speed dating”. This did not work out. Orzabal explains that “Eventually, that pressure and tension divided us not just from our management, but from one another too”.
But Tears For Fears regrouped and changed their management. The new team subsequently raved about the five songs Roland and Curt could agree on and with new purpose and inspiration they completed the album, which is largely produced by Orzabal, Smith and Charlton Pettus, although producers and songwriters Sacha Skarbek and Florian Reutter contribute to a few songs.
Album highlights include the disarming opener ‘No Small Thing’ which takes the listener on a journey from campfire acoustics to full on TFF widescreen production; the pure pop of ‘Break The Man’; the irresistible stomper that is ‘My Demons’, the plaintive and soulful ‘Rivers of Mercy’ and the rueful ‘End of Nights’. The album closes with ‘Stay’, one of the tracks first included on the Rule The World greatest hits in 2017 (there’s no sign of ‘I Love You But I’m Lost’, the other new song on that compilation).
The Tipping Point Green Vinyl LP
Side A
No Small Thing
The Tipping Point
Long, Long, Long Time
Break The Man
My Demons
Side B
Rivers of Mercy
Please Be Happy
Master Plan
End Of Night
Stay
The standard 10-track version of The Tipping Point is available on CD, black vinyl LP and limited indie green vinyl. The retail deluxe CD features one bonus song, the Target (USA) and Japanese editions will have two bonus songs but only the SDE deluxe CD offers all three bonus songs on one physical package! Viva la CD!
The Tipping Point Green SDE-exclusive CD
No Small Thing
Tipping Point
Long, Long, Long Time
Break The Man
My Demons
Rivers of Mercy
Please Be Happy
Master Plan
End of Night
Stay
Bonus Tracks
Let It All Evolve
Secret Location
The Shame
Additionally, the SDE deluxe CD offers enhanced packaging (8-panel digi-sleeve) and a 32-page booklet (the standard has 24 pages) which exclusively features a new interview with Roland and Curt by SDE editor Paul Sinclair.
Be aware that the SDE deluxe CD is a limited edition. There are just 2,000 units available for the UK and the Rest of the World and this is a one-time pressing. Once they are gone, that’s it!
Amazon in the UK are also offering signed CDs, although note that these are the standard 10-track edition.
The Tipping Point will be released on 25 February 2022, via Concord Music.
The Platinum Membership gives you admittance to three days of the RoSFest music festival with exclusive access to the best seats in the theater, (membership seating will not be available via our online ticketing channels).
Special RoSFest VIP lanyard & pass granting early admittance to the theater with access to select meet and greets and pre-show sound checks (some limitations apply). Exclusive RoSFest T-shirt plus your name will be added to a designated thank you page here on the website.
Once you have purchased your Platinum Membership, we will be calling you to thank you for becoming a Platinum Membership and to assign seating with you. Thank you for your support.
Limited Platinum Membership select premium seats are available at $550.00 each for the three-day pass. $200.00 of every Platinum Membership ticket ($550.00) price is gifted as a donation.
Note* The gift donation component of the ticket sale is tax-deductible in the USA.
Music. Culture. Community.
The organizers have announced the following acts to perform at the festival. Kings X, Robert Berry’s 3.2, Pattern-Seeking Animals, Ten Jinn, Lobate Scarp & Arc Iris.
More announcements to follow.
Festival Dates: April 15th, 16th, & 17th, 2022 Location: Sarasota Opera House Address: 61 N Pineapple Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236 https://www.sarasotaopera.org/
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