Taz Taylor was born in Birmingham and relocated to the USA in the nineties. A bit of late bloomer he is heavily influenced by Michael Scheneker,  Gary Moor, Ritchie Blackmore and Eddie Van Halen and the late great Randy Rhoades. Having already released one instrumental solo album,  Caffeine Racer, hr decided that he needed a singer for this his second album and thus approached his all time favourite vocalist. Graham Bonnet duly obliged and thus supplies lead vocals on 'Welcome To America' as well as contributing and lyrics to eight of the songs on offer (well 7.5 to be precise!!!)

I’ll get the negatives out of the way first. It’s obvious that Thin Lizzy, and Gary Moore in particular, are huge influences on Taylor but why, oh why, do another version of Parisian Walkways and then, to add insult to injury, make it an instrumenta to boot. When you have a vocalist of Graham Bonnets capabilities in the band to record an instrumental track is almost criminal, especially when you already have an instrumental album available to showcase your guitar prowess. To reprise the question,  Why???

Ok that's the only negative comment I can make really, the other seven songs are fine, especially if you like early Rainbow tempered with a blast of Thin Lizzy and Michael Scheneker. Basically a cool early 80’s hard rock album in fact. Indeed,  although Taz has been to the Joe Satriani school of hairdressing, his guitar style is definitely old school where melody comes before needless widdling. All the songs have something to offer the listener, with the stand out numbers including Radio Luxemberg, Fighters Fist, Happy Hour about  and the lyrically excellent 'Wall Of Sound' paying homage to Phil Spector. Throughout the album in fact the lyrics are of the highest quality and a step up from the thigh length stockings and the see through dress variety ythat was often prevelant in the era Taylor takes his influences from (but enough about my sexual preferences!!!). Basically this is seven tracks of well played, well produced mid 80's hard rock. But what about the other half track I alluded to above?

Well that’s the last track on the album, Goodbye Mr. C.  I’ve called it a half track for one very good reason, The song is a tribute to the late great Randy Rhoades and is a reworking of two Ozzy solo numbers, namely Goodbye To Romance and Mr. Crowley with additional lyrics and music by Taylor and Bonnet. It is without doubt a suitable, and fitting, tribute to one of the greatest guitarist ever and closes 'Welcome To America out in style

Let us know your views on 'Welcome To America''

Track List

Fighter’s Fist
Radio Luxembourg
Parisian Walkways
Happy Hour
Haunted
Welcome To America
Wall Of Sound
Silent Fall
The Reprise
Goodbye Mr. C

Line Up

Graham Bonnet - Vocals,
Taz Taylor - Guitar
Dirk Krause - Bass
Richard Livoni - Drums
Bob Miller - Keyboards