‘Desolation Highway’ out February 21. From Escape Music: Craig was born and raised in New Jersey. His love of music was sparked after watching the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. Being struck like so many others at the time with how exciting and new sounding it all was, Craig began thinking of taking up a musical instrument, and so he started guitar lessons.
He progressed through his teens and fell in love with rock n roll. His many influences included “Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers, Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck, The Young Rascals, The Beatles, Stones…. on and on. In the Summer of ’75 Craig received a call to come to NY and audition for the AOR / progressive keyboard band AMERICAN TEARS and in 1976 was signed to his first recording contract with Columbia Records. Craig’s subsequent first album, which was AMERICAN TEARS’ 3rd, “Powerhouse” was released in 1977. The following couple of years were spent with the band playing dates throughout the US, writing new music and generally honing their sound.After a group realignment and a change of management, the band collectively decided to change the name to TOUCH. In 1979 Craig signed his second recording contract with Atlantic’s Atco Records. The critically acclaimed debut album, TOUCH was released with two significant singles “Don’t You Know What Love Is” and “Call Me When The Spirit Moves You”. The album had a strong showing but the single “Don’t You Know What Love Is” only made it to #69 on the Billboard hot 100. The album did however have several #1 chart positions in the UK and did well on the specialist Melody Maker Chart in Great Britain.
In 1982 Craig performed on Michael Bolton’s first Columbia solo album, providing Vocals and Guitar. He also has co-writer credit on the hit “Fool’s Game”. In addition, a second touch album was recorded but never saw the light of day until many years later. The band all met up in NY City on May 19, 2019 and began writing and recording a third TOUCH album, “Tomorrow Never Comes”, which was released on Escape Music in 2021 and of the 10 songs on the album, 3 were written by Craig, “Fire and Ice,” “Scream At The Sky” and “Run For Your Life”. It was a worthy come back album which put the band back at the forefront of melodic rock.
After the TOUCH album was completed, he continued writing songs and recording. Craig sensed that he had some new, interesting music at hand, a unique twist to his own song writing. At this point he asked buddy Mark Mangold if he would be interested in collaborating on a Craig Brooks solo effort. And the final result is a new album titled, “Desolation Freeway”, set to be released in 2025.
1.Testify 4:57
2. Fading Out Of View 4:27
3.End Of The Line 4:16
4.Desolation Freeway 4:14
5.Modern Love 5:05
6.Takes One To Know One 4:14
7.Chosen One 5:05
8.Don’t Say You Love Me 5:04
9.Across The Great Divide 5:43
10.Lady Lies 6:00
Produced by Craig Brooks and Mark Mangold
Mixed and Mastered with some additional production by Jimmy Westerlund
Craig Brooks – Guitars / Bass / Keyboards / Vocals (Touch/American Tears)
Mark Mangold – Keyboards (Touch/Keys/Michael Bolton/Cher)
Josh Devine – Drums (One Direction/Levara/Turkish Delight)
Doug Howard – Bass (Touch)