This 2011 release was the third from one man band Jonathan Saunders, who had previously been in the Led Zeppelin tribute band Dazed and Confuzed, who layed a lot in Memphis and around the Southeast and even played at an outdoor festival in Winnipeg, Canada in 2003 along with Peter Frampton, Paul Rogers and Joan Jett. He decided that he would never find anyone who wanted to play the music that he wanted to create, so released his debut as a one man project in 2002 “End of an Age’, following it with ‘The Birthright Circle’ two years later. He has attempted to recreate the lighter forms of symphonic prog, bringing together Genesis and Yes, but from 1978 through the early Eighties as opposed to the soaring prog epics of the early Seventies. Strangely, although I am referencing two British bands, this does have a very American feel about it, with an almost power pop AOR sensibility coming in as well.
The result is an album that is interesting while being played, but not really strong enough in terms of songs or vocal performance to really enthral the listener and make them want to seek it out. But, as I said it is pleasant enough but feels much more of being a starter as opposed to the main course. That being said, this isn’t an album to be dismissed out of hand, and does contain some nice passages.
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