force behind this project and
he takes over to captain “Hun-
dred Million Miles from Home”
with his familiar and confident
vocals pushing the effort in the
right direction. But there are
more hands on deck and James
“JY” Young introduces us to the
“Trouble at the Big Show” that
is powered by the famous Styx
backing vocals that elevate a
good song even higher at warp
speed. Lawrence Gowan takes a
lead role here, too, even if many
fans object to his having been
beamed onboard to replace
Dennis DeYoung nearly two de-
cades ago. Early press says that
the album is a deep, conceptual,
and cinematic epic that offers
listeners a thrilling emotional
journey facilitated by a suite of
songs and some thematic con-
nectors. If Styx set out to reclaim
their glory years complete with
radio-friendly singles and multi-
platinum albums they may have
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 6
missed the mark with this one.
If their goal was to re-establish
themselves as recording artists
after a long self-imposed hiatus
then we can safely say - mission
complete. What’s of more inter-
est to us now is after conquering
the Red Planet where do they go
from here?
We’re a little late to the party
but we are now big fans of the
talented Maggie Rose. We first
saw her live act when she held
a CD release event for her latest
EP Dreams > Dollars and then
again at the recently concluded
CMA Fest. They say good things
come in small packages and this
diminutive singer is a power-
house talent with great promise.
She’s been honing her song-
writing craft in Nashville for the
past decade and now she’s be-
ing hailed as the next big thing
and that sounds about right. The
songs on her new one are a deft
mix of country, pop and rock
INDEX
NEXT ARTICLE
35