Tales Of Wonder (©1992 Star Song)

Raging Of The Moon / His Heart Was Always In It / Unchain / Say The Word / Who Owns You / Where The Thunder Roars / Silhouette / Vendetta / Gabriela / Light A Candle / Morningstar (Segue)

I like this one a lot, then again I like power pop. Sure these guys write some cheesy lyrics, but man these boys could play. They remind me a lot of Toto which isn't a bad thing. The guitar player on this one is a guy named Brian Wooten and he's pretty smooth. There are times he reminds me a bit of Eric Johnson, but like the Toto thing, that's not bad either. At this point I tend to list a bunch of songs I think stand out. But I'm feeling lazy, so I'll just say, look I gave it four stars. It's very good. Enough said already.

It holds up pretty good considering I'm just hearing it now for the first time. But this is the kind of rock I like, and bits and pieces of this kind of stuff is coming back. So it's fun to find old stuff and listen to it with new ears.

Reviewed January 11, 2003

The Early Years (©1996 Star Song)

Tracks: Sing Your Freedom / Read The Book / Powerhouse / The River Will Flow / Desert Rose / Independence Day / Invitation / Answer The Call / Fly Eagle Fly / How Many Times (Seventy Times Seven)

Yes I know that this is another one of the countless Star Song repacking dumps, but it's the one I found cheap and I knew one of the songs but I didn't expect all (not quite all, the insipid "Fly Eagle Fly" is a 5 minute cliche - and was probably a fan favourite) of it to be so good. I mean it pushed all the buttons I like to have pushed. It's a dated piece of work to be sure, but it's retro now so it's almost come around again. WhiteHeart picks up little bits of Toto, Mister Mister, and other 80's staples throws them in a blender and winds up sounding like WhiteHeart.

I remember the first couple of albums had the Huff brothers, and the poor guitar player who stepped in had some pretty big shoes to fill, and whoever he is he's a freaking monster. Too bad they're aren't any credits. Like I said it's another shamless attempt by Star Song to flog their back catalog. Now, if only they'd put out Decent Beat by Quickflight.

This collection pulls songs off three albums Don't Wait for the Movie, Freedom and Powerhouse. If I find those cheap I'll snag 'em up for sure.

Reviewed January 3, 2002

Redemption (©1997 Curb)

1: Looking Glass 2: Man Overboard 3: Honestly 4: Steel & Stone 5: The Vine 6: Fall On Me 7: Give Enough 8: Love Is Everything 9: Remember This 10: Jesus

This is an okay pop album, but it isn’t a very good Whiteheart album. I’ve tried on more than one occasion to jot my thoughts down on this one, and have failed. If you’re reading this, then I’ve at least managed to squeeze something out.

By 1997 the band was reduced to Rick Florian, Billy Smiley and Mark Gersmehl supported by a revolving cast of hired guns. Stylistically Redemption sounds like an attempt to cast themselves as modern artists; and to a certain degree they were successful: here it is almost a decade later and this one is holding up pretty well, it’s just that the results are somewhat uneven. I’m not trashing the album, there are some redeeming songs here that manage to push it over the hump. “Fall on Me” is a really good song, and one that immediately jumped out at me. “Give Enough” and “Remember This” were solid as well. The rest sort of hung there, they aren’t bad and are catchy enough, but there’s something missing.

This was the band’s last hurrah, and given the strength of their past work, and their place in Christian music it would have been great to have them go out on a high note rather than simply fade away.

Reviewed November 16, 2005