"Wake The Nations" is the 9th solo album from rock legend Ken Tamplin, whom you might remember from his work with Christian rock bands such as Joshua, Magdallan and Shout. The first thing that attracted my attention was the long tracklist, with no less than 18 songs clocking in at a total of over 78 minutes! For most albums such an abundance of songs would be like 'overkill', but that's not exactly the case with this one, as boredom doesn't get a single chance to strike. A second thing that I noticed, was the monicker. Just like his "An Axe To Grind" album from 1990, this new one is issued under the name of Ken Tamplin and Friends, which means that besides the regular line-up, a lot of musicians have been invited to sing and play next to the 'captain' himself. Among them we can find 'aces' like Jeff Scott Soto, Philip Bardowell, Jeff Watson, Pete Lesperance, Stevie Salas, Richie Kotzen, Marty Friedman, Reb Beach, Mattias Eklundh, Doug Aldridge, Glen Sobel and Kee Marcello. Phew! Isn't that an impressive list of friends, or what? Anyway, the result of all their efforts can be found on "Wake The Nations", which was released earlier this month (May 2003) by Now & Then Productions in the UK and Mascot Records in the rest of Europe. And yes, it's another jewel in Mr Tamplin's crown, consisting of a chain of delightful melodic hard rock songs, each of them highlighting this man's songwriting and performing talents. Being the cousin of 'red rocker' Sammy Hagar, he's at least as good, both on vocals and on guitar. Choosing highlights is difficult, but for the moment I'd like to give preference to "The Story Of Love" (featuring Soto and Bardowell on lead vocals), "The Man With A Plan" (featuring Jeff Watson on lead guitar), "7 Eleven People" (featuring Marty Friedman and Reb Beach on guitar), "Every Day Is Precious", "Sing" and "Freedom" (featuring Kee Marcello on guitars). And if all this isn't yet enough for you, be sure to find an additional DVD (disc 2) with videos of "The Story Of Love" (in which Jeff Scott Soto makes a guest appearance) and "Falling Houses" (both filmed and directed by Gary Schutt) plus some backstage footage and other paraphernalia. If you're a fan of eighties sounding melodic hard rock, wake up and buy this album! (CL)
 

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Joan (on 25/09/03) Who gives a f*ck about messages on records, this rocks. Bought it when there was nothing much lying around in my fave shop (which happens more and more these days), no regrets. This is not brilliant, probably a bit too long in the end, but still feel good music with excellent songs the likes of "The story of love", "We've Jihad enough" (nice wordplay) and "Waiting for your love". It has been a long time since I bought something from Ken, but it's a nice re-acquaintance (or however you write that!)...   RockDoctor (on 5/06/03) Varied, not afraid to experiment musically or lyrically, and has a good headline song (‘The Story of Love’) which has Jeff Scott Soto as guest co-lead vocalist. Love the lead break. Some may be turned off that Ken Tamplin’s stuff has a strong Christian message laced into many songs, but the preaching is comfortably forgivable thanks to Tamplin’s strong and utterly professional delivery. If you feared it would sound harmless and generic like one of his Baywatch soundtracks, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this fascinating band.   AOR Ive (on 24/05/03) A good melodic hardrock album from Ken Tamplin with 4 or 5 fantastic songs on it , but also some mediocre . Still this is an must for collectors of this genre of music .

 

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