Loverboy

In 1980 LOVERBOY introduced themselves to the world with their self-titled debut album. They quickly became one of America's and MTV's most popular rock bands. From 1980 through 1987 LOVERBOY garnered four multi-Platinum albums and numerous international Gold albums. Their tours sold out arenas and stadiums nationwide. Their hit singles came one after another, and went on to become the anthems and party songs of an entire generation of rock concert going fans. LOVERBOY's red leather pants, bandannas, and big rock sound defined the band's trademark image and high-energy live show. LOVERBOY, driven by the powerful vocals of Mike Reno, the relentless rock groove of lead guitarist Paul Dean, bassist Scott Smith, keyboardist Doug Johnson and drummer Matt Frenette, built its reputation on-stage, bringing the energy from their radio hits to coliseum rousing excitement. LOVERBOY's inception began in Calgary, Canada, when Mike Reno was introduced to Paul Dean at The Refinery Night Club. Dean was rehearsing a new band out back in a warehouse with a friend of Reno's and Mike stopped by to jam. Dean heard him sing a couple of songs and that was that! Over the next few weeks, Dean and Reno began writing songs on guitar and drums. Doug Johnson who at the time was in another Canadian recording band began to hang out and jam with Dean and Reno. It was during one of those jam sessions with Reno on drums and Dean on bass that Turn Me Loose and LOVERBOY was born. LOVERBOY's intense touring years of 1982 - 1986 titled " LIVE, LOUD & LOOSE". Joining Sony/Legacy's best-selling "Live from the Vaults" series that has unearthed live recordings by Janis Joplin, The Byrds, Cheap Trick, Carole King, Ted Nugent, Santana and others, LOVERBOY's "LIVE, LOUD & LOOSE" is a collection of live recordings captured on tape from some of their most exciting concerts. Recorded for Westwood One's syndicated radio series at concerts in Pittsburg, La Crosse and their hometown of Vancouver, the cd contains 14 previously unreleased live concert recordings featuring LOVERBOY's mega hits which include: Working For The Weekend, Lucky Ones, Lady Of The 80's, Take Me To The Top, Jump, This Could Be The Night, Dangerous, Lead A Double Life, When It's Over, Queen Of The Broken Hearts, Lovin' Every Minute Of It, Hot Girls In Love, Turn Me Loose and The Kid Is Hot Tonite. In conjunction with the release of "LIVE LOUD & LOOSE" LOVERBOY toured the US and Canada in support of their latest collection. The tour was dedicated to the memory of their friend and late bassist Scott Smith, who was declared lost at sea on November 30th 2000. With the cd also dedicated to Smith," LIVE LOUD & LOOSE" serves as a special memory for the band that has been together since 1980. LOVERBOY celebrated 25 years together in 2005 by performing in selected cities throughout the US and Canada to mark this milestone.

Leonid and Friends

LEONID & FRIENDS have blown the minds of legions of fans with their uncanny ability to capture the spirit, musicality, and fire of American supergroup Chicago. Leonid Vorobyev's goal was a studio project in dedication to Chicago under the motto “musicians for musicians”. Their first video went viral, but they really gained traction when Chicago itself published the video on its official website. They have since expanded their repertoire to include Earth Wind & Fire, Blood Sweat & Tears, Ides of March, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Deep Purple, and new original material. This incredible 11-piece band now has over 1,000,000 followers across social media, an astonishing 300 million+ video views, and over 300 successful US shows under their belt. The future is only looking up for Leonid & Friends

Debby Boone

Country Royalty

Country Royalty - A Salute To Hank Williams And Patsy Cline

God Save the Queen - Queen Tribute

Jefferson Starship

When founding member Paul Kantner formed Jefferson Starship in the ’70s, he envisioned the band as a cast of musical adventurers, contributing to his epic concept albums and eventual deep catalog of rock classics. When the current lineup of the band came together alongside Kantner as a unit in 2012, with many members joining years before, he couldn’t have imagined that the band would become the road-conquering heroes they’ve been in the last few years. Jefferson Starship’s five members describe themselves as both a “family” and a “gang,” and that comes across in talking to them, and in their robust live performances, which have taken them to all 50 U.S. states., five continents, and too many countries to list here (a recent tour of New Zealand was mentioned among the band’s favorites), drawing from a massive setlist of hit after hit. In addition to original member David Freiberg, the band includes drummer Donny Baldwin (whose Jefferson Starship roots go back to 1982), keyboardist Chris Smith (who joined in 1998), guitarist Jude Gold (who joined in 2012), and singer and guitarist Cathy Richardson who joined in 2008, after Kantner saw her tour with Big Brother and the Holding Company. As Jefferson Starship approaches their 50th anniversary, the group’s members look to the future with the word Kantner, who unfortunately died in 2016, used to say to them all the time: “Onward.” “To me that exploration — that Paul Kantner thing of just getting on a rocket ship and firing it as hard as it will go, and taking off and exploring the cosmos and the music, and everything in between — is really the spirit of Jefferson Starship, and that’s very much alive in the band today,” Gold says. “And that comes straight from Paul. And always has.”

Coco Montoya

COCO MONTOYA WRITING ON THE WALL Bio written by Marc Lipkin   "One of the most prodigious and gifted electric bluesmen on the planet...a deeply soulful singer and incendiary guitarist [with] a seemingly endless penchant for invention." –AllMusic   "Smoking songs and heavy hitting guitar full of fire and passion...Montoya’s rough-edged voice is filled with feeling. Bluesy, powerful and unpredictable...[It]really gets the blood flowing." –Blues Music Magazine "Montoya is a show-stopper...heartfelt singing and merciless guitar with a wicked icy burn. He is one of the truly gifted blues artists of his generation." –Living Blues   “’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ That’s what Albert Collins taught me,” says the award-winning guitar virtuoso and soul-deep singer Coco Montoya. The self-taught, left-handed Montoya mastered his craft under Collins’ tutelage. Incorporating lessons learned from his mentors, the iconic Collins (for whom he originally drummed), and UK legend John Mayall, Montoya puts his own stamp onto every song he performs. Since his first solo album in 1995 (which won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist), Montoya’s endlessly inventive guitar work and passionate, hard-hitting vocals have kept him at the top of the blues world. With his new Alligator Records album, Writing On The Wall(his sixth for the label), Montoya delivers what he is already calling one of the best records he’s ever made. For the very first time on Alligator, he decided to bring his road-tested band—noted keyboardist and songwriter Jeff Paris (Keb’ Mo’, Bill Withers), bassist Nathan Brown, and drummer Rena Beavers—into the studio with him. Between the camaraderie of the long-time bandmates and the sheer talent of all involved, the results have left Coco, in his words, “over the moon.”     Produced by Grammy Award-winner Tony Braunagel (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) and co-produced by Jeff Paris, Writing On The Wall is a tour-de-force of memorable, hook-filled songs, sung with passion and fueled by equally memorable, top shelf musicianship. The 13 tracks include five written or co-written by Montoya. The set opens with a signature, career-defining performance of the soul-baring I Was Wrong, written for Coco by songwriter Dave Steen. From the blistering Save It For The Next Fool to the enjoy now/pay later philosophy of Jeff Paris’ (I’d Rather Feel) Bad About Doin’ It to the riveting reinvention of Lonnie Mack’s Stop, Montoya delivers each song with heart-pounding emotion. Special guest Lee Roy Parnell adds his well-seasoned slide guitar to the smoldering A Chip And A Chair. And Coco’s friend, guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks (son of late Alligator star Lonnie Brooks), joins in for some good-natured fun on the droll Baby, You’re A Drag and adds his blistering playing to the searing cover of Bobby Bland’s You Got Me.     “I am so proud of this one,” Montoya says of Writing On The Wall. “We recorded in Jeff Paris’ studio and everything just gelled together. And the band inspired me; they all gave extra effort at every turn. Jeff, Nathan and Rena played so great, they ended up making me play even harder. They made me sound better than I am!”     Henry “Coco” Montoya was born in Santa Monica, California, on October 2, 1951, and raised in a working-class family. Growing up, Coco immersed himself in his parents’ record collection. He listened to big band jazz, salsa, doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll. His first love was drums; he acquired a kit at age 11. He got a guitar two years later. “I’m sure the Beatles had something to do with this,” Montoya recalls. “I wanted to make notes as well as beats.” But guitar was his secondary instrument. Montoya turned his love of drumming into his profession, playing in a number of area rock bands while still in his teens and becoming an in-demand drummer.     In 1969, Montoya saw Albert King opening a Creedence Clearwater Revival/Iron Butterfly concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was transformed. “After King got done playing,” says Montoya, “my life was changed. When he played, the music went right into my soul. It grabbed me so emotionally that I had tears welling up in my eyes. Nothing had ever affected me to this level. He showed me what music and playing the blues were all about. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”     The next chapter of Montoya’s story was kick-started by a chance meeting in the mid-1970s with legendary bluesman Albert Collins. Montoya says, “Albert was coming through Los Angeles and needed to borrow my drum set, which I left at the club where he was going to be playing. I went down to see his show that night and it just tore my head off. The thing that I had seen and felt with Albert King came pouring back on me when I saw Albert Collins.”     A short time later, Collins hired Montoya as his band’s drummer. With Albert mentoring Coco on the guitar during the band’s downtime, Coco soon became Collins’ second guitarist. “We’d sit in hotel rooms for hours and play guitar,” remembers Montoya. “He’d play that beautiful rhythm of his and just have me play along. He was always saying, ‘Don’t think about it, just feel it.’ He was like a father to me,” says Coco, who often slept at Collins’ home. When Collins declared Montoya his “son,” it was the highest praise and affection he could offer. In return, Montoya learned everything he could from the legendary Master of the Telecaster.     Needing a more regular paycheck, Montoya left Collins’ band after two years and took a job tending bar, jamming on weekends at Los Angeles clubs. One day, legendary British musician John Mayall heard Coco playing Otis Rush’s All Your Love (I Miss Loving)onstage. Soon after, Mayall called on Montoya to join his famous Bluesbreakers. Filling the shoes of previous Bluesbreaker guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor would not be easy, but Montoya knew he could not pass up the opportunity to play with another legend. For the next ten years he toured the world and recorded with Mayall on seven albums, soaking up the experience of life on the road and in the recording studio.     Montoya’s recorded debut as a bandleader came with 1995’s Gotta Mind To Travel(originally on Silvertone Records in England and later issued in the USA on Blind Pig Records). The album became an instant fan favorite. Blues enthusiasts, radio programmers and critics sent praise from all corners. The album immediately made it clear that Montoya ranked among the best players on the contemporary scene. Two more Blind Pig albums followed, and Coco was well on his way.     In 2000, Montoya’s Alligator debut, Suspicion, quickly became the best-selling album of his career, earning regular radio airplay on over 120 stations nationwide. Montoya’s fan base exploded. After two more highly successful and massively popular Alligator releases—2002’s Can’t Look Back and 2007’s Dirty Deal—Montoya signed with Ruf Records, cutting both a live and a studio album. Returning to Alligator with 2017’s Hard Truth and 2019’s Coming In Hot, the guitar master continued to blaze his trail. “Montoya unleashes one career-topping performance after another,” declared the UK’s Blues Matters.     Still an indefatigable road warrior, Montoya continues to tour virtually nonstop, bringing audiences to their feet from New York to New Orleans to Chicago to San Francisco. Across the globe, he’s performed in countries including Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Canada.     Now, with the dynamic Writing On The Wall and a tour calendar busting at the seams, Coco Montoya is as excited as he’s ever been to perform the new songs live with his burning-hot band. Montoya’s well-earned reputation as an eye-popping live performer precedes him. Vintage Guitar states, “Coco keeps getting better and better. He plays with fire and passion rarely seen in this day and age.” Billboard declares, “In a world of blues guitar pretenders, Coco Montoya is the real McCoy. He exudes power and authenticity. Be prepared to get scorched by the real thing.”   Alligator Records, LLC P.O. Box 60234, Chicago, IL 60660 (773) 973-7736 publicity@allig.com  

Welcome Back My Friends - An Evening with Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Michael Schenker

Michael Schenker Michael Schenker is best known as founding member of The Scorpions and his work with UFO during their most prominent years (1974-79). UFOs 1974 Phenomenon spawned such metal classics as "Doctor Doctor" and "Rock Bottom". Schenker later received offers to join Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, and Ozzy Osbourne. However, Schenker set his sights on a solo career, forming the much famed Michael Schenker Group and finds himself an icon in the guitar world, most recently being hand picked by Kirk Hammett for Activisions Guitar Hero Metallica. Hearing Michael Schenker for the first time changed how I wanted my own solos to sound in terms of phrasing, technique, and being something that was memorable and catchy.