My musical tastes are firmly rooted in the classic rock era (the sounds of my youth) so it may seem odd to some that I am offering an opinion on a band that comes out of the hair metal/MTV rock era. Or perhaps it isn't so surprising after all since there are many people out there who understand that good music is timeless and that it lives on to influence more good music over and over again. The period of time when Baton Rouge released their debut album certainly put that belief to the test. The popularity of music videos had unleashed "made-for-tv" musicians by the score. There were still good bands out there that made music their primary focus but you had to work hard to find them. I was fortunate to have a good friend who was more than happy to help me with this task (Thanks Bryan !!!). It was at his insistence that I purchased a copy of Baton Rouge's 1990 release "Shake Your Soul". I immediately realized that I had found another link in the chain of timeless good music.
"Shake Your Soul" is an outstanding effort by a band that should have been at the top of its class. Kelly Keeling has an excellent voice (check out his solo work as well as he has worked with Alice Cooper, Blue Murder, Michael Schenker, John Norum, Don Dokken, Carmine Appice/Guitar Zeus, and many other notable artists) and Lance Bulen's guitar work is superb. The band is tight and the production is solid. As for the music itself, it ROCKS. There is a good mix of hard rock ("Doctor", "Big Trouble", "Bad Time Comin' Down" , "Hot Blood Movin'", "Baby's So Cool"), heavy groove ("Walks Like A Woman", "Spread Like Fire"), power ballads ("It's About Time", "There Was A Time"), and , for lack of a better term, in-betweeners ("Young Hearts", "Melenie"). No wasted space on this one.
"Shake Your Soul" continues to be on my play list after all these years. So here is a challenge to those of you out there who consider yourselves to be experts on this genre: compare the music on "Shake Your Soul" against that which you hold to be the best of the genre and see how it measures up. Once you do, you may find yourself adding Baton Rouge to the top of the list.