NEAL SCHON SOLO CDS

Neal Schon, is the greatest guitarist on the planet, at least in my opinion. The man can play anything, and any style of music. But no matter what he plays or what he does, he will always be best know for his work in Journey. Plus he did awesome work in Bad English, Hardline, and Soul Sirkus. Journey of course is his most popular work and most main stream. His solo cds that I have range from awesome to poor, but even the bad cds have something good on them.




UNTOLD PASSION (C-) is my least favorite solo work by Schon. For the most part the music is his furthest from Journey, and times seems like he trying too hard to be different, while being the same. I do like the songs "Wasting Time" and "Hooked On Love". Plus "I'm Talking To You" ain't that bad either. The singing on the cd is not great at all. The one Thing that made Perry so good in Journey, is that he had Schon to push him and back him up. Plus he teams up with Jan Hammer on this cd, and I have to be honest, I really don't care for Hammer's playing or writing.



LATE NITE (A) This is my favorite Schon solo cd. The man plays with such passion on this cd. I criticized his singing on the above, and I liked the follow up even less, HERE TO STAY (which I no longer own). But on this cd, Schon hits the notes, and the music and singing are a good fit. The songs on this cd posses a soul of their own at times, and you find yourself wanting more, even on 9 plus minute "The Theme". At times you can almost hear were Perry could have lifted these up even higher, if he was singing, but he is not, and really I don't care that he's not. This cd is all about Schon and his music. Schon brings different writers and that seems to have helped too. If I had to give something bad, it is not long enough. Late Nite 2 anyone?


BEYOND THE THUNDER (A) is my second favorite cd by Schon. This time it is strictly instrumental. Plus he has help from former Journeyman J. Cain. The music is very laid back and mostly acoustic. A very relaxing cd, that keeps you focused on the music. "Big Moon", "Cool Breeze" and "Call Of The Wild" are my favorites on the cd. This is my favorite acoustical cd, and leads me to wonder, why hasn't Journey done something like this, backed with a tour?



ELECTRIC WORLD (C+) 2 cds and 21 songs are just too much. Cut this cd down to one and it would have been a lot better. When I listen to, I take one of the cds and go with it. There are some good songs on this, but for the most part it seems like Schon is trying to update his post Perry Journey sound, or even do a Carlos Santana sound. Also at times the songs seem unfocused.



VOICE (A-) I like what Schon did here. Took other people's songs (Twain, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey, Anne Lennox) and slightly redid them as instrumentals. It works!! Granted there are a handful of songs I don't know, but they come off good too. Some amazing work, that really needs to be listened to.





I ON YOU (B+) Another great cd. All instrumental, and very well played. Schon always plays with a fire that burns with him, and this cd is no different. The first 3 songs on the cd are a true showcase to that, "Blue Passion", " I On U", and "Timeless Motion" and the cd ends on the same note with the last 3 songs being very strong also. There are a couple songs in the middle that are a little weaker than rest of the cd. But still a great cd.