Notes
When keyboard player/vocalist Ken Baird had written some music which seemed to require more collaborative arrangements than usual, he asked drummer Chris Lamont and Bassist Dino Verginella if they'd be willing to be a part of "Monarch Trail". Lamont had played on Baird's previous three albums and Verginella on the previous two, so it was a natural thing that it could be called a group. The first stage was to set up several rehearsals for the trio to work on arranging the new pieces. Important changes were made to the charts; an extra set of bars here, a new melody line there, a different tempo over there and so on. Even more importantly, these rehearsals also turned out to be a ton of fun with no lack of shenanigans! They made the decision to start recording the music right away and add other musicians when needed. As it turned out, there was to be a fair bit of guitar on the record, so guitarist friends were brought in providing "the right part for the right track". True to the spirit of the project, John Mamone, Kelly Kereliuk and Steve Cochrane all had major creative input on their solos and sections. The recording was done by Ken Baird, but in the final months of the record, Cochrane also lent his studio and his recording and mastering abilities. Drawings by Annette Roche had initially helped inspire the lyrics, so these drawings ultimately became part of the album artwork. And so here we have it, the first album from Monarch Trail: "Skye"! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marcel Hartenberg from The Dutch Progressive Rock Pages says: It happens quite often that renowned instrumentalists take steps from the spotlight their bands might be in, just to tread on paths not crossed before and create a musical landscape of their own. Perhaps it happens more often than not, even. Yet, to see a solo artist venture the other way around, is something that is not seen as frequent. Having already released five solo albums, Ken Baird has nevertheless decided to do so. As he states himself, the music has more of a collaborative charachter than anything he had written before. It doesn't then seem as strange that he decided to record this album as a band. For that matter he surrounded himself with musicians who already played with him on earlier releases. Dino Verginella on bass and Chris Lamont on drums form the core of Monarch Trail together with Ken who plays the keyboards and takes care of the vocal duties. Guitar duties are shared by John Mamone, Kelly Kereliuk and Steve Cochrane. Luminescence with all it's great keyboard textures and joyfully dancing and prancing guitar is a meeting of Genesis, somewehere on the verge on And Then There Were Three or Duke and Jadis. The rich keyboard textures remind us of Tony Banks weaving intricate textures, yet Ken seems to have mastered textures further and invites us all off to listen to the luminaries these musicians form together. Grand without getting too grand, the opening track is soothing for the ear and sets the mood for many an enjoyable hour of listening to Ken's compositions. Somewhere midway the opening track, you could wonder if you're not on the travels by some duke or another. Yet, the music is very, ehm, entangling. The guitars come to the fore in the intro part of the song and very much so remind of Gary Chandler's guitar led Jadis. There's also, albeit slightly, resemblance in the way both Ken and Gary sing. Silent World comes a-roaring after the initial easy going and bit jazzy intro to the song.Keys all over the place as if we were summoned to get into the air to fight those Bandits up in the air. Yet, just as we are about to board our aircrafts the tempo of the song slows right down and, all of a sudden, the song becomes rather bombastic. Still, the variety in the song works. The fact that the siren like wail is played by the keys migh
