Ballads Before the Rain

Ray Manzarek & Roy Rogers - Ballads Before the Rain

Ballads Before the Rain
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CD Details

Artist: Ray Manzarek & Roy Rogers
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-04-08
Music Label: Friday Music
Soundtracks:
  1. Gnossienne No.1
  2. B.E. In Memorium
  3. El Amor Brujo
  4. Remembering You
  5. The Crystal Ship
  6. Love Is A Dangerous Place
  7. Ruby Red Nails
  8. Riders On The Storm
  9. American Pastoral

Music reviews of Ballads Before the Rain

Music Review: Good stuff from Ray and Roy
Rating: 4 Stars

One has to be cautious before buying an album like this. A 1960's rock icon, now pushing seventy, teams up with a slide guitarist and releases an instrumental album that includes 2 of his own pop classics from 40 years ago, plus a couple of post-classical tunes and some unknown material.... However, I gave it a shot and found this to be some very well conceived and powerful music.

Ray is on piano throughout, and his keyboard prowess has not diminished in the least in all this time. Roy is of course in his prime as a guitarist. The balance between the 2 musicians sounds good to me, probably more piano than guitar, but why not. You're not gonna rock out wearing a bandanna and swilling a beer to this album (unless you really want to), but it is a mature pleasure without being a task to listen to.

All in all, I find this one quite a bit more consistent than most of Ray's other offerings (even with the Doors), as there is not a single track here that I would select to skip over. No experimental rock synthesizer, no blaring pounding noise, nor do they wimp out with acoustic excess. They just make the best instrumental music that they know how to make. This might not be among the greatest albums in the history of music, but it is quite listenable.

It's been mentioned that this album contains an unspecified Miles Davis cover, but I didn't find any. Also, I would bet that in their sessions they tried more Doors covers than the 2 that appear here, and that they discarded all but the ones that worked best. That's fine with me - no one wants to hear inferior retreads of favorite tunes. The 2 Doors standards included are quite fine. As for the rest: track 1 is Satie. Track 3 is apparently something from a much longer suite by de Falla - (if anybody knows which sub-piece, I'd like to know.) Track 6 is a tune by a friend of Ray's named Darryl Read. Tracks 4 and 7 are Rogers originals. I think the others might be new, maybe one with some Miles influence in it, which I will be sure to listen out for in future playings of this.
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Description of Ballads Before the Rain

The legendary co-founder of The Doors, Ray Manzarek and the critically acclaimed slide/blues guitarist Roy Rogers have put their artistic minds together and have truly created a captivating new duet album for Friday Music entitled Ballads Before The Rain.......The nine instrumental works that make up this debut album are sonically some of the finest recordings to be released this year, and we are very proud to have both of these fine gentlemen on board with this incredible new release.......

Audiophile fanatics and fans alike will truly dig the amazing new takes on Doors classics like The Crystal Ship and Riders On The Storm, as well as the other blues/jazz/classical tracks that define the utmost level of musicianship that each of these award winning composers/producers/performers display.

The much emulated keyboard technique of Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers solid guitar work carry on throughout all of the works contained on this debut release. Not foreign to the classics, the two even combine their talents and visit Eric Satie s Gnossienne No. 1 as well as deep blue etchings from Roy Rogers himself on Remembering You and Ruby Red Nails.

Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers- Ballads Before The Rain....This historic meeting is now waxed and ready for their legions of collective fans to enjoy. A session fit for a king indeed!

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