'Night' vision: Rock balladeers head to Fort Smith on wings of new album
Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/WhatsUp/67263/
The days of Night Ranger playing six shows a week in an 18-month stretch are over. The energy, Kelly Keagy insisted, is not.
"We really care about keeping things rolling and keeping that energy up," said Keagy, the band's drummer and co-lead vocalist. "The kind of energy we have on stage, it demands a workout."
That statement would hold true especially after recently releasing an album, "Hole in the Sun," for the first time in a decade.
Patrons can find out for themselves Saturday at the Harry E. Kelley Riverfront Park in Fort Smith as Night Ranger takes the stage following performances by Crooked X and Cody Marks as part of the "Rockin' in the Fort" fundraiser for the local branch of the Children's Emergency Shelter.
When the band first started registering on the national radar with a number of rock ballads in the early '80s, Keagy and the group's two other original members had a challenge finding time to exercise. These days, Keagy has plenty of hours to jog and lift weights while staying at his Nashville home.
The band is also still able to put on a high-energy show, Keagy said.
"We've never lost that," he said. "We have a great passion for performing. We're all in good shape so we have that sustained energy that we can hold onto for two hours."
Keagy, who is 50, showed off his sense of humor when talking about his age.
"Twenty-nine," he responded. "We're all close to 30. We started this thing out when we were 5. It's been amazing."
Bassist and co-lead vocalist Jack Blades and guitarist Brad Gillis form the band's other two cornerstones. The trio met as part of acfunk rock band named Rubicon in the late '70s in San Francisco. Blades, who once played with Ted Nugent's Damned Yankees, Tommy Shaw of Styx fame and Michael Cartellone, rejoined the band in 1996 after leaving in 1989. Before making it big with Night Ranger, Gillis toured with Ozzy Osborne in 1982 after Osborne's guitarist, Randy Rhoads, died in a plane crash.
The band released its first album, "Dawn Patrol," in 1982, featuring songs "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" and "Sing Me Away." The group's second effort, "Midnight Madness," produced the band's biggest hit, "Sister Christian."
Keagy has gained the most name recognition as the composer and lead vocalist on the hit tune, which "is just a song about growing up," dedicated to his younger sister, Kristy, who was a high school upperclassman living near Eugene, Ore., at the time. When the band heard Keagy sing the song, they thought he was saying "Christian" instead. The misnomer stuck -- and soared to No. 5 on The Billboard Hot 100 of 1984.
The band's newest album, which debuted in the American market July 1 under VH1 Classic Records, has a song, "There Is Life," that some critics have labeled as the sequel to "Sister Christian." In spite of the similar opening piano chords, Keagy disagreed.
"We can't put out a Night Ranger album without putting out a piano ballad," he said. "We always put one out because we gravitate toward that. It's part of our history."
The band was in the area July 11 to take part in Rocklahoma, a multiday festival north of Pryor, Okla., devoted mostly to '80s rock. The event turned out to be a high school reunion of sorts for the group.
"It was great to see our old friends," Keagy said.
At the show, the band played one of their newest songs, "You're Gonna Hear From Me."
"We set it up and told [the audience] we had a new album," Keagy said.
Still, after the set, one fan said he remembered hearing the song on either "Dawn Patrol" or "Midnight Madness."
"'It sounds like old Night Ranger,'" Keagy remembered the fan saying.
"That's what we were trying to achieve."