heaven and earth – The Rock and Roll Report

CD Review: Heaven and Earth “Dig”

Back in 1997, guitarist Stuart Smith got together with a rather large group of musicians to record an album of Classic Rock music. Together, this group of musicians (which included the likes of Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora, Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes and even Steve Priest of the band Sweet) created several different musical formations of the same band which came to be known as Heaven & Earth. Some of the participating musicians in the recording project lent their talents to only one or two of the resulting tracks, while others (including bassist Chuck Wright, drummer Richie Onori and keyboard player Arlan Schierbaum) were a bigger part of the recording process as they lent their talents to several of those tracks.

After the self-titled album from Heaven & Earth was released, the band later added to that album and the resulting 2004 re-release easily stands as strong as any Classic Rock/Hard Rock release from The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin or even Steve Priest’s band Sweet. It’s the talent of the musicians and the strength of the music that you notice; you would never know the album took seven years to become a reality.

Now, almost a decade after that first album was released, Heaven & Earth have returned. While that first album had its unique circumstances with how it was created and by whom, this new release, entitled Dig, has been written and performed by five main musicians who finally feel like a band. The quintet that brought Dig to life consists of: Guitarist Stuart Smith, bassist Chuck Wright, drummer Richie Onori and keyboard player Arlan Schierbaum, all of whom participated in the recording process that led to that first album. The final piece is newcomer Joe Retta who adds both vocals and lyrics to the songs.

While there are many different styles of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the style that usually gets the most attention is the style that has become known as “Classic Rock”. We all know many of the band names that make up the genre of music: You have Led Zeppelin, Cream, Deep Purple, Yardbirds….. and on, and on. These bands created a sound that many bands that have come later on have copied and tried to match. But let’s face it- there’s only one Led Zeppelin, or one Jethro Tull, or one Pink Floyd. These are the bands that anyone in the music industry, be they singers, musicians, or writers, would consider “Classic Rock” bands. And it is these bands that have set a standard that very few bands today can match. So to find a band today that delivers the same type of power and energy, you may have to create a band that is made up of nothing but musicians that have already made names for themselves in music as part of former “Classic Rock” bands. And that is where the band “Heaven And Earth” comes in.