Ken Tamplin - Where Love Is (CD, 2001 Girder Records) Howie Simon of Talisman, Graham Bonnet, Jeff Scott Soto

• 2021 Girder Records
  
• Released January 29, 2021
• 6 Panel with Lyrics in Jewel Case
• Originally Released in 1998
• European Only Release
• Features Howie Simon who played with Rob Rock, Jeff Scott Soto, Graham Bonnet, Talisman, Alcoholica 

Description

6 Panel Jewel Case with Lyrics. Features Howie Simon (Rob Rock) and Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie Malmsteen Vocalist). 

Where Love Is was originally released in 1998 as an independent release although Ken tells us that it was a European release not available in the USA. Whatever the situation two things are for sure. It's expensive to buy and one of Ken's most prolific and diverse releases he ever made.

Everyone knows that Ken rocks.  He's a vocal master and his guitar chops are among the greats.  However this album shows an incredibly diverse side of Ken with Salsa, Horns, Latin and R&B. No it's absolutely not metal but there are some great rockin' moments, but more importantly it shows how great Ken is as a vocalist and why he has one of the largest online vocal academy's today.  It's 17 songs and nearly 80 mins worth of horn blazing, guitar toting, get up and move greatness.  

Personnel
Ken Tamplin: Lead and backing vocals, Guitar
Howie Simon: Lead and rhythm Guitar
Alan Lee Silva: Keyboard sequencing
Dirk Schoppen: Bass
Stefan Svensson: Drums

Tracks
1. Dance into the Night 4:42
2. Life Is What You See 4:20
3. Loving You, Loving Me 4:29
4. Sometimes It Just Hurts 4:08
5. Seeing Is Believing 4:03
6. Where Love Is 4:46
7. Man, Without Tears 4:18
8. The Garden of Evermore 4:33
9. 1,000,001 Ways 3:23
10. Cherish the Moment 5:00
11. Yesterday, Today and Forever 3:15
12. Everchanging World 4:13
13. Come Out Dancing 3:31
14. Meet Me in the Middle 5:13
15. Save Your Love for Me 4:07
16. Love Me Forever 4:14
17. You Are the One 4:51

ABOUT KEN

Ken Tamplin is the pop-metal master who played, sang, and wrote songs for the Christian bands Shout and Magdallan. While with the latter group, he also began a solo career. A musician’s musician (and first cousin to Sammy Hagar), Tamplin is widely known and respected within the general market—especially for his incredible four-to-five-octave voice, arguably one of the best in rock and roll. He is able to count Peter Frampton, John Entwistle (of The Who), Jeff Lynne (of ELO), and Robin Zander (of Cheap Trick) among his fans. An advertisement for 1993’s Tamplin included testimonials to the artist by members of Boston, Foreigner, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Ratt, and Toto. Tamplin was brought up in a Christian home and began playing guitar at the age of six. When he was twelve, he almost died when a homemade rocket exploded in his presence; years later, he would still describe his recovery from this accident as “a medically documented case of miraculous healing through prayer.” Nevertheless, he was quick to backslide and spent the next year of young adolescence dealing cocaine and other drugs. Four overdoses on angel dust kept him in touch with mortality and, at fourteen, he says, he finally recommitted his life to Christ and has “been on fire for him ever since.” Ken Tamplin 925 An Axe to Grind was recorded after the demise of Shout and prior to Tamplin’s album with Magdallan. It is a loose and experimental affair, featuring eclectic outings with diverse session musicians and friends. Five tracks are instrumentals. Most of the tracks are stereotypical hard rock in the mode of Def Leppard, with “Holding On” being one of the most Shout-like. There are a couple of Petra-ish power ballads (“Never Give Up,” “I Hear Cryin’ ”). “Believin’ Is the Hardest Part” offers overtly evangelical lyrics set to a Beatlesque acoustic tune. On Soul Survivor, Tamplin would leave most of the guitar playing to his cohort Steve Van Zen and concentrate on vocal histrionics. The sophomore project moves even further toward the more commercial sound of groups like Boston or Journey, mixing hard tracks like “Take It Now (or Nothing)” with more artrock meanderings like “(I’m Gonna) Live Forever.” Tamplin is perhaps his career high point as a solo artist, filled with commercial hard rock songs like “Suspicious Eyes” and “Slave Trade” (on the trap of materialism, i.e., being a slave to mammon). “Mystery Train” has a big melodic chorus, and “Testify” incorporates traditional gospel influences. On the song “Don’t Let the Sky Fall on Me,” the artist somewhat presumptuously offers testimony to his own righteousness as a protection against divine judgment: “I’ve seen crooked men walk a crooked mile / Yet I’ve resisted the devil’s daughter of desire / So don’t let the sky fall on me.” In the Witness Box finds Tamplin taking on a number of social issues. “Feed Me” deals with media sensationalism in a manner similar to Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry,” while “Strange Fascination” puts the shoe on the other foot and examines the public appetites that drive such frenzies. Alcoholism is addressed in “Death by Inches,” and racial tension, in “Colorline.” The song “Alma Rose” is a tribute to a Jewish violinist who was forced to play at executions inside a concentration camp. Although Witness Box is mostly hard rock, Tamplin also performs the classic praise song “Sing Hallelujah” and delivers a bizarre cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” rewritten with new, Christianized lyrics. On We the People, Tamplin would declare that he was “broadening his horizons” and attempting to reach a different audience. Abandoning the hard rock genre altogether, he now works with a twelve-piece string orchestra, horns, and a church choir. The eclectic album includes entrees into a wide variety of styles, including adult contemporary and synthdriven dance tracks. “There’s a Way” is a Latin number, and “When Angels Cry” (an antiabortion song) incorporates a bit of disco. The connecting link that holds most of the disparate sounds together seems to be a Motown influence, rarely evident in Tamplin’s previous work (except perhaps in the aforementioned Wonder cover). Tamplin also sings in a lower register on the album, almost making the material sound like that of a different artist. We the People would be Tamplin’s last project to receive notice in the Christian media, though he continued to record and release independent albums. In 2001, he produced a compilation of worship songs called Make Me Your Voice (Benson) as a benefit album for victims of persecution in the Sudan (such artists as Andraé Crouch and Charlie Peacock contributed to the project). At that time, it was reported that he was serving as music director of the Living Stones Fellowship in California, where his brother Lance was pastor. He had recently written music for the motion pictures The Perfect Storm and Joan of Arc and for the TV series The XFiles. Dove awards: 1994 Hard Rock Album (Tamplin)