| The
Review |
When you think of singer/songwriters, you don't think
of hard rock, it's always the person sitting in some coffee
shop with their acoustic guitar or some so called 'big name'
writer in some bourgeois lounge in Nashville spending more
time talking about the song than actually performing it. So
all this has helped typecast what most people think a songwriter
really is. But not so. You have a lot of rockers out there
that know what a song is, and know how to make it roar. You
have Bruce Turgon, Tony O'Hora, Jeff Paris, and in this case,
Steve Newman. As a guitarist, producer, multi-instrumentalist,
Newman brings the hard rock approach to songwriting, and his
strengths show, whether it be with his musicianship/chops
or his knack for writing riffs and hooks, it's all present
(he is a damn good guitarist). ***
He sounds a bit like John Norum (as well as other mentioned
earlier), so he does keep it heavy at times, shredding his
axe throughout driving through cuts such as "Move On" and
the title track which propels the heavier stance on the album;
however, the bulk of 'Heaven Knows' leans on the AOR side
of things, so you have rockin' pop prowess on tracks like
"The Way You Love Me" and "This Time" as well as balladry
on "Sport of Kings" and "Aint Gonna Cry Forever" rounding
out the records' musical approach. ***
'Heaven Knows' is a strong record that comes from the
soul, with the hard rock factor in place to prevent it from
going way into pop directions; it rocks all the way through,
no matter what Newman might want.
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