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Chris DeMarco Lost and Found Review by Gary Hill The title Lost and Found refers to the fact that this CD includes both old and new songs from Chris DeMarco. Much of the music is sort of adult contemporary to pop rock in nature, but DeMarco and company also flirt with progressive rock at points. For my money two tracks here, “Love and Murder” and “Sail Away” make this disc worth having without considering anything else on the disc. DeMarco is joined on this disc by such luminaries as Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper Band), Tommy Talton (Gregg Allman Band and Cowboy), Ken Mazur (Robert Palmer Band), Rhys Clark (Billy Joel Band and Freddy Fender Band) playing drums and Jim Fielder (Buffalo Springfield, Blood Sweat and Tears and Neil Sedaka) on bass. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2008 Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Out of the Blue This is a fairly catchy pop rock song with some nearly lounge lizard type vocals. The guitar soloing on this one is quite tasty. In fact, at times that guitar solo borders on progressive rock.

I'm Calling You Here is another pop rock song, but it seems to have more of an ’80’s sound. The chorus on this is especially effective. I like this one better than the opener.

You Can't Go Home Again More balladic, this is a bittersweet pop rock song. It’s good, but perhaps not as potent as the song that preceded it. The tasty guitar solo does manage to elevate it a bit.

Love and Murder Now, this is cool. It’s got a jazzy texture, but the spoken lyrics make one thing about Jim Morrison. The lyrics, though, are an old gum shoe detective story. The chorus is sung. This is just such a cool song. I absolutely love this one and it’s worth the price of admission all by itself. Some of the instrumental work on this qualifies nicely as progressive rock.

It's Inevitable The intro, and in fact a lot of the guitar work on this, reminds me a lot of the bluesy side of David Gilmour’s output. The vocals, though, are more like lounge lizard crooning. This is a sort of an adult contemporary song with some nice bluesy textures.

The Quiet of the Rain This is a balladic number and rather nice. The thing is the vocal performance feels a bit too slow to me and a little over the top in terms of theatrics at times. I don’t really care for this track, although, some of the musical arrangements and performances are strong.

Lost and Found We get a more traditional blues piece here. I really like this one a lot. It’s got some tasty guitar work and is one of the highlights of the CD. There is also some nice honky tonk piano on the track.

I Don't Wanna Wake Up A more modern pop rock tune, the vocals on this are mostly spoken. We get some proggy keyboards later on this tune.

When It's Gone Much of this track is in a balladic motif. The vocals are a bit over the top in terms of their delivery. Still, the saxophone is a nice touch and when the cut is pumped up later it’s just plain killer.

Unknown Soldier Here DeMarco rocks out a bit more. For some reason this track reminds me of Randy Newman. It’s a good tune. It gets quite powerful later. We get some martial percussion in keeping with the title and some hints of “Taps.” This is one of my favorites on show here.

It's Never Too Late Another straightforward rocker, this is a solid piece.

Sail Away DeMarco closes things with another highlight. This is pretty much a progressive rock tune. It’s hard edged through a lot of it and at times the vocals remind me a bit of White Witch. It’s a killer tune and a great way to end things on a high note.

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