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Dynamic Singer, Gifted Songwriter, Energetic Frontman, Bassist Extraordinaire, Discerning Producer and Consummate Musician would all appropriately describe Jack Blades and his contribution to Rock'n'Roll over the past two decades. Jack initially came on the scene in the early 80's as the front-man and co-lead vocalist of his popular band Night Ranger. He was responsible for writing or co-writing the majority of the group's major hits including Don't Tell Me You Love Me, (You Can Still) Rock In America and Sentimental Street. After multi-platinum success with five studio albums throughout the eighties, Jack would go on to co-found another successful collaboration in Damn Yankees that consisted of legendary guitarist Ted Nugent, Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw and drummer Michael Cartellone. Just as he did with Night Ranger, Jack fired up the Damn Yankees sound with true anthemic power. The association brought two successful albums on Warner Bros. and Jack's songwriting prowess generated double platinum albums, gold singles and rock hits. In 1995 Jack and Damn Yankees cohort Tommy Shaw would collaborate again with Shaw*Blades. Their longtime friendship and mutual admiration would result in the critically acclaimed release Hallucination which confirmed the musical instincts of Jack as a master songwriter and performer. Two years later Jack rejoined his original Night Ranger band mates in order to release Neverland, an album which got an overwhelming success in Japan, selling some 40,000 copies in the first week of release. Night Ranger also toured in Japan performing nine sold-out shows in a row. In 1998 Jack was selected by Ringo Starr to be an integral part of his VH-1 Storytellers appearance and subsequent album. Released in 1998, Storytellers contained fourteen tracks featuring Jack on bass and vocals plus other members of the Roundheads including Joe Walsh, Mark Hudson and Simon Kirke. In addition to being a songwriting force in all three of his bands, Jack is known within the industry as one of music's premiere tunesmiths as he penned songs for such notables as Aerosmith, Cher, Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey, Great White, Journey, Ozzy Osbourne, Styx, Point Of Grace and Kelle Brian among seemingly countless others. He has also written for country artists and offered numerous songs that appeared in blockbuster movies (Armageddon, Wayne's World, Tommy Boy, Rock Star, The Secret of My Success) and TV shows. And if that isn't enough Jack has recently produced releases from such artists as Great White, Samantha 7, Ted Nugent himself and most recently the debut album from his son Colin Blades. After such a great career, finally it came the time for a solo album. For such task Jack surrounded himself with such greats as Tommy Shaw of Styx (who plays guitar and shares lead vocals on Shine On), Neal Schon of Journey (who plays lead guitars and co-wrote To Touch The Sky, Sea of Emotion and Don't Want To Be Alone Tonight), Michael Lardie of Great White, Warren De Martini of Ratt, Damon Johnson of Brother Cane and of course his Night Ranger band mates Kelly Keagy, Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson plus his gifted son Colin with who he co-wrote Breaking It Down. The resulting self titled album is a real melodic rock masterpiece which encompasses all aspects of the songwriting of this true rock genius and spotlights his great singing and entertaining abilities. A true gem!
