Liner Notes

Rock in the 1970s: brash, loud, fresh, powerful, electric, amped, distorted, cutting edge. Classic rock today is *different*: back in the seventies, we hadn’t heard the songs a thousand times. The hooks, riffs, power chords were brand new then—today, they’re still great, but no longer new, fresh, radical; in fact, they’re almost tired, too predictable and ultimately, overdone—grown stale. The cutting edge is dulled by nostalgia and repetition.

That’s where “Renegade” takes over, raw and deliberately unrefined--no studio cosmetics and slick production: the searing yet simple guitar work, lush chords, freight train backbeat, and wailing rhythm are of the classic rock stock, with an important difference—these are brand spankin’ new. You’ve heard the style, the feel of the rock songs—but not the songs a thousand times.

“Renegade” is an album of the rock we devoured when it was new—and this *is* brand new. This is the rock that we loved to listen to, to be amazed by, to play way too loud, to have stuck in our heads all day till we could get home after school or sports or work and crank it up again. It's the sound you heard booming out of a darkened gym as you approached your high school on a special weekend night.

So crack open a quart of malt (or twist open a Boone's Farm), dim the lights, burn some incense, and make your kids nuts with some raw 70's rock.

The songs: “Renegade” is driving beat sliced up by a lead guitar playing a fretboard slalom with the raggedy rhythm; “Just Breathe” rocks steady, a riveted ride wheezing like an old bear into each chorus as a distorted lead wails and dies; “Waxahachie” is the classic three-chord guitar chase atop a wah-wah rhythm and thudding bass; “Solitaire” is the composite of solitary lead guitar finding it’s way in the dark; “Move On” drives a hard rhythm and a cutting lead, “No Dice” is the jet engine your parents yelled at you to turn down—which made you want to turn it up all the more.

All the touchstones of classic rock—heavy chords, knife-edged guitars, a dumptruck full of back beat, a stalking bass and you haven’t heard this a thousand times—yet.

Crank it up--and rock on.

Chris Manno—Lead, Rhythm, Bass, Drums.

Produced and recorded in Fort Worth by Cyber-Sonic.

Copyright 2009--All Rights Reserved.