Search - Whitford, St. Holmes :: Whitford/St Holmes

Awesome, high energy rock-n-roll !

biography reader | New York, NY | 03/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is good old fashioned rock-n-roll with crisp vocals and sweet guitar riffs. Great to party to! Derek St. Holmes (from Ted Nugent) has a sexy, smooth voice and Brad Whitford (from Aerosmith) sounds killer on guitar. I can't beleive this didn't get any airplay--it's a mystery to me! A must have for anyone who loves high energy, clean, crisp 70's and 80's type rock."

Another Big 80's Lost Gem!

G. Mallory | Northern PA USA | 10/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"(Note: This review written by someone old enough to remember the time it first came out!) This album is one of those albums that makes people say would have and should have a lot. It should have been bigger than it was and probably would have been had it not been for the unusual circumstances that gave birth to it. Brad Whitford had plans for some solo material as far back as 1978, having mentioned that he and some friends had recorded some demo's in a Guitar Player Magazine interview of the period. But the "Aerosmith Marketing Machine" did not allow time to develop these ideas much. When the band had its famous crash and burn and rotating guitarist roster from fall 1979 to fall 1983, Joe Perry split for three albums worth of frustration venting. Meanwhile Brad tried gamely to stick it out for another album after the endless fight that was "Night in the Ruts." About one third of the way into the "Rock in a Hard Place" sessions, (Read the Aerosmith Bio "Walk This Way" for the back story.) he'd had enough of the endless delays, the monster tours and the money machine behind the old band. Derek St. Holmes had gone through a similar plight with Ted Nugent and had even struck out on his own with the soft selling "Saint Paradise".

Now Derek is a good singer, it's just that the guitar work on "Saint" is a little soft. Brad's vocal efforts have always been limited to a little back up singing, but his guitar work has always been solid. So why not do the obvious and combine solo efforts into one solid album? Why not try to remember why they got into music in the first place? That was the spirit behind the formation of "Whitford/St.Holmes." So they jammed out an album in a few weeks with a minimal budget. You get the feeling the record was done in a hurried and hushed up fashion, almost on the sly. It shows in the production because it is a little rough and some of the guitar solos are buried in the mix. But there were several radio worthy tunes on this record! Stuff that was easily the equal of what was being played at the time. "SharpShooter", for example, is a timeless real rock track that makes me put my right foot down hard when driving. So why the seemingly limited release? Yes, there was a track that did get some airplay for all of about one week in late 1981, I remember hearing "Every Morning" on the radio. The trouble was corporate politics buried the album! Certain people behind the scenes wanted the Aerosmith Money Machine turned back on and the original members back. That meant no big time support for solo projects. Back in 1981 when I went to find this album, I had to go to a MAJOR record store and dig for two hours, as it was buried in the back. Meanwhile the usual canned pop was offered up front in the top 40 racks. All this dirty dealing meant another good album got buried and lost. The usual crap that happens to this day. Brad's solo tour ended after only a few months, Derek went demurely back to Ted Nugent, Brad toured with Joe Perry's solo band for a while before Aerosmith finally reformed for good in 1984. But at least now you can find the CD re-release on collector sites like this one, and if you are into early 80's power pop like Cheap Trick, Boston, older Aerosmith, then you should add this to your collection. It's not for everyone, but it is an interesting record of its time."

Overlooked Gem

P. Cross | West Virginia | 12/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is fantastic, easily one of my top 5 favorites of all time. It is a shame when a talent like Derek St. Homles isn't a huge superstar. I rate this album way above anything Aerosmith has put out since Night in the Ruts."