The debut Circle of Friends album, ‘The Garden’, was put together in 2021 by Bruce Mee as a tribute to his mother, who died of cancer the previous year. Consisting of many well-known names in the genre (Doro, Robin Beck, Jeff Scott Soto, James Christian, Robin McAuley etc) this album was only ever meant to be a special one-off.
However, there were still a few songs from the past that Bruce wanted to bring up to date, and with a generous helping of originals, ‘Cherokee Moon’ was realised. Growing up in the 80s, Bruce’s love was for Classic and Melodic Rock, and that was clearly shown by some of the tracks on ‘The Garden’. For ‘Cherokee Moon’, there were a few tracks that he really wanted to put his own stamp on. The Saxon song ‘Princess Of The Night’ must surely be one of the classic tracks from the NWOBHM era. However, the production back then wasn’t the best so it was decided to cover the track, and to make it that little bit more special, add Hammond organ into the mix. Jeff Scott Soto, who once toured the USA supporting Saxon, does Biff proud with his vocals. Rainbow has always been Bruce’s favourite band, particularly the Ronnie James Dio era, of which a few songs were considered. But for ‘Cherokee Moon’ it was decided to redo the classic Joe Jynn Turner era track ‘Can’t Let You Go’. The incredible vocals here are supplied by Harem Scarem’s Harry Hess. The Europe album ‘Prisoners In Paradise’ is one of Bruce’s favourite releases. And having worked with Tanya Rizkala on ‘The Garden’ it just seemed a logical choice to have an actual girl from Lebanon singing ‘Girl From Lebanon’. Elsewhere we have MSG’s Robin McAuley doing a wonderful version of the Van Zant song ‘Midnight Sensation’ from the wonderful debut. Paul Manzi (The Sweet) does an incredible job on Ten’s ‘The Robe’, an album that Bruce first release way back in 1999 with Now & Then Records. But it’s just not fantastic covers, there are also 6 awesome originals, with the album opening with the fantastic Rainbow fuelled ‘Starlight’ sung by Robin Beck’s daughter Olivia Dei Cicchi. Robin herself shows up on a duet with Seven’s Mick Devine with ‘Lying Here Beside You’.Elsewhere, Bruce himself provides the lyrics for the Mark Boals fronted ‘Eternal Love’. Darby Mills returns for the powerful ‘House of Shadows’ and Thomas Vikström supplies the vocals for the Steve Overland (FM) written ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’. Gathering Of Kings vocalist Rick Altzi performs on ‘Eye Of The Hurricane’, the only song this time provided by the writer of most of the debut album, Mikael Rosengren. Along with many other well-known musicians, ‘Cherokee Moon’ is a heavier animal than the debut but still retains the melody and sheer power that has become synonymous with the name Circle Of Friends. All this has been meticulously put together by producer Khalil Turk of Escape Music with a phenomenal mix by Fredrik Folkare (Nordic Union /ex Eclipse) Release date: March 22, 2024
1. Starlight (Olivia Dei Cicchi) 4:04
2. Eternal Love (Mark Boals) 4:20
3. Princess of the Night (Jeff Scott Soto) 4:10
4. House of Shadows (Darby Mills) 3:57
5. Lying Here Beside You (Mick Devine/Robin Beck) 4:34
6. Can’t Let You Go (Harry Hess) 4:23
7. Eye of the Hurricane (Rick Altzi) 4:27
8. Midnight Sensation (Robin McAuley) 3:57
9. Girl From Lebanon (Tanya Rizkala) 4:25
10. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Thomas Vikström) 3:49
11. The Robe (Paul Manzi) 9:27
Guest Musicians:
Harry Hess – Vocals
Robin McAuley – Vocals
Robin Beck – Vocals
Mark Boals – Vocals/Bass
Jeff Scott Soto – Vocals
Derby Mills – Vocals
Rick Altzi – Vocals
Paul Manzi – Vocals
Thomas Vikstrom – Vocals
Tanya Rizkala – Vocals
Olivia Dei Cicchi – Vocals
Mick Devine – Lead and backing vocals
James Christian – Backing vocals
Fredrik Folkare – Guitars/Bass
Steve Mann – Keyboards
Nalle Pahlsson – Bass
Tom Croucier – Bass
Tommy Denander – Guitar/Keyboards
Gregg Hart – Guitars
Steve Morris – Guitars/Keyboards
Kjell Haraldson – Hammond
Robert Sall – Guitars/Keys
Brian Anthony – Bass
Johan Kullberg – Drums
Josh Devine – Drums