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Night Ranger’s vocalist/bassist Jack Blades is feeling pretty excited about his band’s latest album, “High Road.” Best known for their classic hits like “Sister Christian,” “(You Can Still) Rock in America,” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” the band’s new release captures their signature, melodic rocking sound.
“We’re firing on all eight cylinders,” Blades enthuses. “We’re just kicking it with great ideas and rocking and rolling. This is a rocking album. We’ve got some good kicking stuff.”
The album blasts off with the catchy title track, a feel-good rocker perfect for highway cruising, which Blades wrote with his son Colin.
“Kelly (Keagy) and I were sitting in my kitchen and all of a sudden Colin was strumming a guitar and singing verses. We were, ‘This is great.’ So we dropped everything, went into the studio and cut the whole track. It was the last track we did. We ended up naming the album ‘High Road’ because it just seemed to fit. We’ve got some great response to it. We’re playing Japan right before we get to you guys, so we will be really rocked up when we get to Maui.”
Other high-energy rockers on the album include “Knock Knock Never Stop” and “Rollin’ On.” And then there’s a couple of moving power ballads, “Only For You” and “Don’t Live Here Anymore.”
“Night Ranger has always had hard rocking tracks and big ballads,” Blades notes. “So you’ll have songs like ‘Sister Christian’ and ‘Rock in America.’ With this album, ‘Only For You’ is a great song and one of my favorites is ‘Don’t Live Here Anymore.’ It’s a deep track. Basically it’s about you can change whatever situation you’re in, whether an addiction to alcohol or drugs. It’s like I used to be this way but that man doesn’t live here anymore. You’ve got a chance.”
They close “High Road,” on a surprising note, with a rather elegant, Spanish-flavored instrumental, “LA No Name.”
“We just threw it on there, it’s something that has been kicking around for a while,” he explains. “We thought we’d drop on an acoustic instrumental to end the whole thing. Aerosmith had an album where there was a musical interlude between each song. I thought that was a great idea.”
Adding to the album’s allure is a cool cover shot of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge at night festooned with a banner emblazoned with the title. “In secret little spots we stuck in parts of all our album covers,” he says. “It’s a where’s Waldo thing. We’ve done so many albums, OK we have to do a cover, and we’re like, ‘Oh man.’ I see why the Beatles had an all-white cover and why Metallica had a black album.”
Out in July, “High Road” marked their 11th studio album, a follow up to their 2012 live CD, “24 Strings and a Drummer,” which featured acoustic versions of band favorites.
“Night Ranger has never done an ‘MTV Unplugged,’ though I did one with the Damn Yankees when we first started out,” he says. “We always wanted to do like a ‘VH-1 Storytellers’ unplugged thing. We did it at Bob Weir’s studio in the Bay Area and invited a bunch of friends. So we made a record and a companion DVD. Night Ranger’s songs translate very well to an acoustic format. It was fun to make them acoustic.”
Formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980, Night Ranger hit big during the ’80s. Their first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
“English rock inspired us,” says Blades. “We were big fans of Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy.”
They gravitated from an opening act to headliner status by the summer of 1984, after the release of their second album, “Midnight Madness,” which included the mega hits “(You Can Still) Rock in America” and the ballad “Sister Christian,” which became a prom favorite and was later employed so effectively in an epic scene in the movie “Boogie Nights.”
“It was crazy, we were selling out arenas,” he recalls. “Then the pressure was on to top the next record. We were a straight-ahead rock band, but the record company only wanted to release ballads. The perception was we’re a ballad band, but we’re really not, this is a kick ass, American rock band. “
The band currently features Blades, Kelly Keagy on drums and lead vocals, lead guitarist Brad Gillis, keyboardist Eric Levy, and new lead guitarist Keri Kelli, who has replaced Joel Hoekstra.
“We have Keri from Alice Cooper’s band,” Blades says. “He plays great guitar. He and Brad are great friends, and we might bust out an Alice Cooper song. When I played Maui with Shaw/Blades last year (with Tommy Shaw of Styx), I thought we’ve got to bring Night Ranger to full out rock and roll because the audience was so great. We’re all pumped up.”
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The annual Maui Ukulele Festival at the MACC is always a treat, but this year’s free event on Sunday may be remembered as one of the best ever, with an amazing lineup of talent.
Popular artists participating include Raiatea Helm, Willie K, Paula Fuga, Sam Ahia, Brittni Paiva, Kamakakehau Fernandez and 2014 Jazz Album of the Year winners, The Hula Honeys. Other musicians on the bill include Oakland-based ‘AHAmele, Nick Acosta, Nelly & Daniel Baduria, Aidan James, Andrew Molina, Taimane, Tamlyn Tamura and Yoza; as well as the Kalama Intermediate Ukulele Band with Benny Uyetake and the Seabury Hall Hawaiian Ensemble, led by Jon Toda.
Among the rising ukulele stars, 16-year-old Acosta has amazed audiences since he began studying with ukulele master Roy Sakuma. Born with one hand and one arm (without a right arm below the elbow), he uses his left arm to finger chords and notes, while his half-formed right arm strums strings. Full of praise, Sakuma says, “You think Nick has limits, but he just works around it.”
“The ukulele brings me to my happy place,” adds Acosta.
A featured performer with Don Ho for five year’s, Taimana released her most recent album, “Ukulele Dance,” in 2012. A versatile artist who fuses flamenco, classical, Hawaiian and pop, she covered a spectrum on the recording from Bach’s “Toccata” and a medley of “Mission Impossible” and “James Bond” themes to a unique take on Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Original instrumentals on the impressive CD included “Moon,” inspired by the solar system.
Yoza began learning to play the ukulele at age 5. By the age of 10, she performed with Sakuma, as a “Super Keiki.” After studying music at Hawai’i Pacific University, this extremely talented musician began fusing hip hop, R&B and Latin influences. Her self-titled debut album won the 2014 Na Hoku Award for R&B Album of the Year.
Along with hosting the festival, Sakuma will lead a free workshop for students of all ages at 10 a.m. Saturday. in the McCoy Studio Theater. Lessons are designed for beginning and intermediate players: the only requirement is that a student can hold C, F and G7 chords. Students should bring their own ukulele, notepaper and a pencil. Attendees will be invited to participate in Sunday’s festival, playing one of the songs learned in the workshop. There will be an ukulele drawing. Reservation not required, registration starts at 9 a.m.
* Maui Ukulele Festival will be from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the MACC. Admission is free. Door prizes of ukulele will be given away. The festival will also sell and show sell displays of made-in-Hawaii arts and crafts.