TOWER CITY, the American trio who formed in 1988, are best known for their album ‘A Little Bit Of Fire’ which has a cult following amongst AOR loving fans worldwide, largely in Europe.
The album, recorded back in 1992 with the help of Mike Slamer (Streets, Steelhouse Lane, Seventh Key) features some of the best AOR / Melodic Rock songwriting you are ever likely to hear, sadly looked destined to never be heard, until the now defunct German label MTM Records released the album in 1996 gaining high praise to the band.
With the songs on that album having been written and recorded in the early nineties, by 1996, the band had since become known by the name Colorvine, which delivered a more progressive and alternative form of melodic rock that gained them a solid fan base within the USA.
Now here we are in 2011 and the music of Tower City will be heard in a way it never has before.
The band has remastered a selection of their best songs (including titles from the second ’98 album ‘All Or Nothing’), along with 4 new tracks that have been recorded in the last 7 years, entitled “The Ones That Matter”.
Saltis brothers said;
“We have never been inactive as musicians. Our music may not have been represented as we felt it should have the first time around.
We went back and looked at a lot of the tracks, picked some of our favorites, and revamped a collection that we could be proud of presenting to those listeners that still cared.
The 4 new tracks are representative of our growth together after the Tower City days.”
For me personally, Tower City’s music is littered with virtually everything that I love about the Melodic Rock / AOR genres.
Together with Steelhouse Lane, Tower City carried the flame during the second half of the nineties. In fact, both bands were somehow connected. Steelhouse Lane’s mastermind, Mike Slammer, helped this band in the artistic production department, songwriting and playing some guitars.
Tower City is a very, very good band, with a late ’80s MR/AOR arena style full of trademark hooks, lush melodies and monster choruses.
As brothers Saltis like to say: “Time passes, people change, but the good music remains!”
Highly Recommended.
01 – Moonlight
02 – Little Bit Of fire
03 – Smoke (New track 2011)
04 – In These Arms
05 – Talking To Sarah
06 – Ain’t Nobody To Love
07 – Say You Love Me (New track 2011)
08 – Six Strings (New track 2011)
09 – I’ll Sleep Tonight
10 – Love And Money
11 – Surrender
12 – Hot Water
13 – When It All Falls Down
14 – Wishbone (New track 2011)
15 – Closer To The Heart
16 – Hungry
Larry Saltis – Lead Vocals, Guitars
Tim Paul Weiner – Bass, Backing Vocals
Heath Saltis – Drums, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Additional Musicians:
Scott Sanders – Guitars & Backing Vocals
Mike Slamer – Guitar
Billy Cioce – Drums
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