Lions

Lions is the second album, three and a half years in coming, released by Frontiers on 10 July 2020. Steve Brown again wrote and produced all of it alone. Bruno Ravel — Ted Poley's own bandmate in Danger Danger — mixed it, and Maor Appelbaum mastered. The line-up has not moved: Poley, Brown, Greg Smith, Chuck Burgi. Recording ran at Mojo Vegas and at Greg's barn. The guests earn their place. On the title track, over six minutes long, Dennis DeYoung of Styx plays a keyboard solo, and “Sedona” carries a saxophone from Mark Rivera, who has worked with Billy Joel and Ringo Starr. From the one-two of “Youngblood” and “Monster in Me” into “Around Midnight,” the opening run hits harder than the debut's. Brown put it flatly: from day one he knew this was a genuine rock group — not a fake cash-grab project, not a so-called supergroup, not an imaginary band that makes one record and never plays live. And they did play. That single fact is what sets this record apart from the rest of its kind.