Veteran hard rock vocalist Joe Lynn Turner has had a storied career, fronting such acts as Rainbow, Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, and recorded/toured alongside Glenn Hughes, Brazen Abbott, and others, as well as had a pretty busy solo career. Live in Germany , believe it or not, is the singers first ever live album, recorded back in September of 2007, at the United Forces Of Rock festival at Ludwigsburg, Germany, and contains songs from throughout his career, though the majority are Rainbow songs with a few of his solo pieces. Joining Turner are guitarist Karl Cochran, Greg Smith on bass, drummer Michael Sorrentino, and Carmine Giglio on keyboards.
Most of the classics you would expect are here, such as the Rainbow hits "Stone Cold", "Street of Dreams", and "I Surrender", plus the hot album tracks like "Death Alley Driver", "Power", "Can't Happen Here", "Spotlight Kid", "Can't Let You Go", and the ripping "Jealous Lover". Surprisingly, nothing from his short stint in Deep Purple is covered, yet he does tackle "Burn" from the Coverdale/Hughes era of the band, which is quite an odd choice as Turner doesn't really have the voice for that one, but he does a commendable job (best to leave that one to Glenn dude!). He does show though that he has plenty of chops left, and while he can't reach some of the high notes like he used to, his husky mid-range still works just fine, and it's a joy to hear him singing some of these old Rainbow songs again. Sadly, no tunes from the Malmsteen album Odyssey either, which is a shame as it's one of the best vocal performances of the singers career, and an album that had many stellar cuts. Guitarist Cochrane proves to be quite a talented player, perfectly laying down Ritchie Blackmore's licks and solos, and Giglio also does a fine job on organ and synths. There are also three solo tunes played here, "Blood Red Sky" and "Power of Love" being the strongest of the batch, two really good melodic rockers with hooks and strong vocals from Joe.
All in all, a fun trip down memory lane with Mr. Turner, and he deserves a big 'thank you' for dusting out these tunes for us!
Track Listing
1. Death Alley Driver
2. I Surrender
3. Power
4. Street of Dreams
5. Power of Love
6. Can't Let You Go
7. Jealous Lover
8. Your Love is Life
9. Blood Red Sky
10. Stone Cold
11. Can't Happen Here
12. Spotlight Kid
13. Burn
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