Customer Reviews

Heaven and Earth Featuring Stuart Smith

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Good

Kelly Hansen reaches down deep for his strong vocal performance on "Don't Keep Me Waiting". The track is loaded with seventies style keyboard tones and piercing solo work by Stuart Smith. Rock journeyman Joe Lynn Turner appears on three tracks. "Still Got the Blues", a pure blues track that has Stuart flexing his classical guitar skills a la Richie Blackmore, while JLT shows that he's on top of his game with raw and emotional vocals. "It's Got to Be Love" has JLT being backed up by familiar Rainbow-like keyboard melodies and a brass section. He delivers a great line to conclude the chorus: you know I hate you so much /its got be love. More classical guitar reigns supreme on "Shadow of the Tyburn Tree". Is that a pan flute I hear? It does fit appropriately with the songs 15th Century theme.

Stuart's fretwork takes a back seat to warm keyboard riffing on "Life on the Line", but he cuts loose when it comes to the break. Bobby Kimball handles vocals duties. Kelly Hansen returns for the power ballad "Do You Ever Think About Me". It's just Kelly's smooth vocals and a somber drumbeat during the verses, but it's not long before Stuart comes in with the riffs. Kelly brings it up a notch to put the chorus over-the-top. Hansen switches gears on "Trouble in Paradise". This time he's backed by a bluesy, boogie-woogie beat, complete with pounding piano keys and heavy riffs. Smith pulls off some great improvised guitar licks. "Howlin' at the Moon" features the weathered vocals of Paul Shortino. The meaty hooks really compliment his voice.

The Bad

Nothing

The Verdict

Blues-based hard rock has been missing from the musical landscape for a longtime. Fortunately, Heaven & Earth are here to fill that void with their near perfect compositions and collaborations.

Heaven & Earth is a melodic rock/blues rock project put together by guitarist Stuart Smith in the mid 1990's. Smith was the guitarist for one incarnation of the UK glam rock band the Sweet, and for this effort he recruited some very impressive guest musicians, including Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Jay Schellen (Hurricane), Chuck Wright (House of Lords) and Carmine Appice (too many to list). If that weren't enough, vocal duties for this album are handled by Kelly Hansen (Hurricane, Foreigner), Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Rainbow), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), Richie Sambora and Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt), among others.

The result of this all-star collaboration is a very fine melodic rock album with a great bluesy vibe. It treads the line between melodic rock and blues rock perfectly, and should appeal to fans of either style. Obviously the guitar work is the main focus of the album, but what impressed me most was the variety of great vocal performances. Joe Lynn Turner was fantastic, especially covering Gary Moore's "Still Got the Blues," as were Glenn Hughes and Paul Shortino. Richie Sambora was surprisingly effective on Deep Purple's "When a Blind Man Cries," but Kelly Hansen is the singer who really steals the show here. He's such an underrated vocalist.

I honestly can't see Heaven & Earth disappointing very many melodic and/or blues rock fans. The whole album is just a classy, well put-together affair, and it holds up just as well today as it did when it was originally released.

Edition Notes: Heaven & Earth has been reissued a few times over the years. The best version I've seen adds 5 additional songs for a total of 16 tracks.

Format Note: If you're buying this CD directly Amazon, you should be aware that what they're sending you is a CD-R with a color printed booklet, not an officially pressed silver CD. If you want the real CD, you should order it from one of their vendors.

Great guitar work on the whole album. Great version of Still Got the Blues. Great vocal & instrumental work all the way around. The only reason it doesn't get a higher rating is some of the original songs are not very memorable.

This cd is ok. I'm not too into most of the songs. However, the 4 Kelly Hansen did were well worth my money!