BOBBY MILFORD

I became pretty interested when I saw that vocalist Bobby Milford from Tennessee, USA was influenced by acts such as JOURNEY, BOSTON and STYX. The music is a little lighter than those acts, but still the 10 songs on his DAM CDR from mp3.com is sounding pretty nice and have a lot of similarities to JOURNEY, but also to STEEL BREEZE, BALANCE and even the classy early 80s calmer West coast AOR sound of AIRPLAY, ALLIANCE, RPM can sometimes be noticed. Most of the songs are ballad orientated, but there are happily also a few rockers. Opener "Primitive love" is a nice rocker like IDLE CURE, ALLIES… The following 5 songs are all good calmer AOR ballads a la JOURNEY and early DAKOTA/JERRY KELLY, my favorites of those songs are "Can I hold you" and "Ethereal" (both very AOR based).

Towards the end of the CD, we can hear two great rockers and two poppy songs. The rockers are "If I'd only known" and "Nobody but you". "If I'd only known" is a great up tempo early 80s AOR rocker. And "Nobody but you" is a lovely polished early 80s AOR/Radio rocker like 707, BALANCE, AIR RACE and especially STEEL BREEZE (with Kevin Chalfant on vocals). These two rockers are by far the best songs of the CD and if Bobby would make some more of such rockers, then it would become a lot more interesting. The two poppier songs I mentioned are "Running on empty" (west coast) and closing track "Tearing us apart" (recorded live, a nice piano-ballad). Anyway, Bobby has a very good voice, so that's something to admire and although musically it is not always convincing, I still think fans of AOR a la DAKOTA and STEEL BREEZE will find something they like on this CD. Check out Bobby's music at: http://www.bobbysplace.com and e-mail him at: b@bobbysplace.com