Kelly Keeling - Mind Radio

Kelly Keeling Mind Radio cover
Kelly Keeling
Mind Radio
Frontiers Music Srl
2015
6.5
Kelly Keeling’s story might read a bit like, “close, but no cigar”. Kelly Keeling is a Louisiana-born multi-instrumentalist in high demand as songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, and producer. He began his musical career with Baton Rouge with whom he released 3 albums. Later he joined Blue Murder’s 2nd album, “Nothin but Trouble”, wrote and recorded 2 albums with John Norum (Europe) following extensive tours of Norway & Sweden. Keeling joined Heaven & Earth for “Windows to the World”, then 3 albums and world tour with Michael Schenker’s MSG, 4 albums with Carmine Appice’s Guitar Zeus, featuring legendary guitarists Brian May, Yngwie Malmsteen, Neal Schon, Slash, Zak Wilde, Steve Morse, Paul Gilbert, and Vivian Campbell. After 3 years as lead vocalist touring and recording with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Keeling returned to independent projects including the recent album, Red Zone Rider, featuring UFO guitarist Vinnie Moore and Scot Coogan.
 
Apparently there was a Baton Rouge album commissioned, that didn’t quite happen for whatever reasons and as such, some three songs from that ended up on this album that was created as a means to “fill the gap”. There is a couple of Robert Sall numbers, which are expectedly the most AOR numbers on here and the rest are Del Vecchio’s.
 
Ah yeah, this is another of DV’s productions, featuring his usual backing/studio band. The guy has been busy producing half of Frontiers bands and projects and while he’s pretty adequate, he’s not exactly king Midas, or maybe he is... he has the chance to work with a variety of greats but the results are not always on par with what expectation would have you yearning for.
 
This particular effort, just seems like a mixed up case, where there are too many cooks so the result, ain’t as good or focused as it could potentially be. Keeling is a capable vocalist all right and he puts on pretty decent performances but he doesn’t sound entirely enthusiastic or at least he doesn’t come across as strong as he should on a number of cuts.
 
“This Love – Our Paradise” isn’t half as an opener and while it’s far from sounding original, it’s well enough executed.
 
“Isolated Man” is a smoother mid-tempo that would have gone nowhere if its chorus didn’t lift it from its plodding rhythm but feels more like a pastiche of parts than a properly written song.
 
“Sunshine Over Me” sounds like badly done Toto and again is saved by half a good idea on the bridge/chorus.
 
“Still Need You in My Arms” would have loved to be a Journey tune but while it is an anthemic type of ballad and Keeling tries to “sell it” seems to fail to reach it’s potential... he also does sound strained in certain parts.
 
“Writen in Fire” is one of the “BR” tracks and it immediately feels quite different, stylistically, probably a lot more “worked on” than Del Vecchios… decent but somewhat misguided efforts.
 
“Take Me to the Limit” has some nice parts, but again feels different.
 
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” is a half ballad, an under-powered power ballad that’s actually one of the better Del Vecchio tracks.
 
“Frozen in Time” sounds a lot like Work Of Art, no wonder since it’s the first of two Sall penned tunes, only with KK singing instead of LS who’s a lot smoother in his delivery.
 
“Monkey House” is a 70s inspired rocker, again an abandoned BR track. Not bad, but not great either.
 
“Ride out the Storm” is the second Sall number and it’s even smoother but the singing is not a perfect match for the overall style. Not a bad track though.
 
“Who Do You Run To” is the final BR song, a pretty straight forward and pretty aggressive rocker that’s not exactly on par with some of the band’s best output.
 
Another of the “Frontiers” commissioned solos with a bunch of good songs mixed with some lesser good one but in this one the chemistry is lacking... less than the sum of its parts but fans of bands in which Keeling has been involved in might be interested.