The Way Life Goes

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The Way Life Goes
Studio album by Tom Keifer

Publication
(s)

April 29, 2013 / October 20, 2017

Label (s) Merovee Records / Cleopatra Records

Format (s)

CD , LP , online music services

Genre (s)

Hard rock , blues rock

Title (number)

14th

running time

51:37

occupation
  • Bass : Michael Rhodes

production

Tom Keifer, Savannah Keifer, Chuck Turner

Studio (s)

The Hum Depot, County Q, Vibe Studio, The Purple Box

chronology
- The Way Life Goes Rise
(2019)

The Way Life Goes is the title of the first solo album by the US singer , guitarist and songwriter Tom Keifer , released on April 29, 2013 . It belongs to the genre of blues rock .

background

Tom Keifer gained his first musical success as a singer in the US hard and blues rock band Cinderella , which was awarded several platinum albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s . The biggest commercial success was the album Long Cold Winter in 1988 , which helped the group to international fame. During the US tour for the album Heartbreak Station in 1991 Keifer suddenly lost his voice. The tour had to be canceled and Keifer was operated on several times. In 1994 Still Climbing was released after a long time . Also as a result of the now occurring grunge - and alternative -wave, but mainly due to lack of support of their record company , Mercury Records , flopped the album. In 1995 the group broke up, but found back together in 1997.

Keifer had other surgeries done to preserve his voice, and he also struggled with depression . He separated from his wife and moved to Nashville , where he built his own recording studio . There he began to write songs for a solo album. In 1997 he paused work for a planned comeback with Cinderella. The group signed a new recording deal with Sony Music . The contract lasted until 2001, when it was canceled by Sony because the pieces offered by the band did not seem strong enough to the company. In Nashville, Keifer also met his future wife, Savannah Snow, who worked as a songwriter for a music publisher .

Keifer then continued working on his solo album, the first recordings were made in 2003. When he became a father in 2004, work came to a standstill again, and the continued tours with Cinderella slowed him down: Among other things, the band toured the USA with Ratt , Quiet Riot and FireHouse under the banner Rock Never Stops in the summer of 2005 . In 2006, his planned album was largely finished when Keifer lost his voice again on a concert tour with Poison . It was a neurologically -related paralysis ( paresis ) of the laryngeal muscles found. He was told that he would probably never be able to sing again. In order to be able to continue his career, it was necessary to train the vocal cords with the help of speech therapists , voice trainers and singing teachers so that they could be used again for singing.

For the work on his album, which he took up again from 2008, Keifer partially resorted to songs that he had written many years earlier. For example, The Flower Song was created in the 1990s in collaboration with songwriter Jim Peterik ( Survivor ), and with him Keifer also wrote the title Cold Day in Hell . Seven songs on the album were created in collaboration with his wife, who also contributed the background vocals to two tracks ( A Different Light and Ask me Yesterday ) .

In addition to Savannah Keifer, various guest musicians also contributed their skills: The long-time saxophonist of the Rolling Stones , Bobby Keys , played the solo for the title Babylon ; Jim Horn , who had also worked for the Rolling Stones, but also for Steely Dan and the Beach Boys , played on Cold Day in Hell. Cinderella guitarist Jeff LaBar worked on Mood Elevator .

Keifer himself describes the result as follows:

“You could describe it as a mixture of Long Cold Winter and Heartbreak Station , enriched with a few new ingredients. I always wrote the majority of the songs at Cinderella and then sang them too. The differences are now limited. "

- Tom Keifer : Ten years on hold - Interview with Tom Keifer in: Rocks - Das Magazin für Classic Rock, issue 03/2013, page 51

The Way Life Goes was released on April 29, 2013. In March 2013, Solid Ground and a little later The Flower Songs were released as singles on CD and via online music services .

Track list

The Way Life Goes 
No. title Songwriter Guest musician length
1. Solid ground Tom Keifer , Savannah Keifer   4:08
2. A Different Light T. Keifer, S. Keifer   3:57
3. It's not enough T. Keifer, S. Keifer, Kent Agee   3:06
4th Cold Day in Hell T. Keifer, Jim Peterik Jim Horn (saxophone), Pat Buchanan (guitar, harmonica ) 3:42
5. Thick and Thin T. Keifer   3:45
6th Ask me yesterday T. Keifer Ron Wallace, Pat Buchanan (guitars) 3:56
7th Fools Paradise T. Keifer   3:26
8th. The Flower Song T. Keifer, Peterik Pat Buchanan ( slide guitar ) 4:11
9. Mood elevator T. Keifer, S. Keifer Jeff LaBar (guitar) 3:36
10. Welcome to my mind T. Keifer, S. Keifer, Blair Daly   3:25
11. You Showed Me T. Keifer Pat Buchanan, Gary Burnette (guitars) 4:21
12. Ain't that a bitch T. Keifer, S. Keifer, Conley White   3:10
13. The Way Life Goes T. Keifer Pat Buchanan (harmonica) 3:45
14th Babylon T. Keifer, S. Keifer, Doug Gordon Bobby Keys ( saxophone ) 3:35
Overall length: 51:37

Deluxe Edition

On October 20, 2017 as published Deluxe Edition designated new edition of the album with Cleopatra Records. In addition to the titles published in 2013, it contained two other songs. These were cover versions of With a Little Help from My Friends ( The Beatles ) and Nobody's Fool from the Cinderella debut album Night Songs, written by Keifer himself and sung in a duet with Lzzy Hale ( Halestorm ) for this album . This edition of The Way Life Goes also contained a DVD with the music videos for Solid Ground, The Flower Song and It's not Enough, as well as a making-of video of the CD bonus tracks .

reception

Martin Römpp wrote in Rocks that "no one would have bet" that Keifer's solo album would "actually be released one fine day". The "enormous quality level" that The Way Life Goes keeps "almost continuously" is therefore the second big surprise. Keifer continues what he " pushed with Cinderella in the early nineties, especially on Heartbreak Station ". The album offers "Rock'n'Roll, strongly associated with the old Rolling Stones, with intertwined blues and country elements". Keifer shows "his entire range", ranging from rock numbers to paino ballads. The titles Solid Ground, You Showed Me and In a Different Light were highlighted - the latter could "also play a role in the American country charts in 2013." In addition, "an intimate acoustic number could not be better staged" than Ask Me yesterday. Römpp awarded four out of five possible points.

The magazine listed The Way Life Goes as one of its 2013 albums.

In his review for Rock Hard , Thomas Kupfer said that if the report that Keifer “had been working on the tracks for his now finally released solo debut since 2003” suggests “lack of ideas”, then “such considerations would arise from the 14 songs on the album ?? effortlessly “scattered. The blues influence already known from Cinderella was joined this time by “not only hard rock , but also soul , gospel and country influences”, which invite you to a “stylistic journey of discovery par excellence”. Some of the things on this album "couldn't have done better by even the Rolling Stones", the "crisp opener" Solid Ground or the hook monster A Different Light screamed "almost for airplay," whereby "the latter number in particular has what it takes to be a (country) hit" have.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Ten years on hold - Interview with Tom Keifer in: Rocks - Das Magazin für Classic Rock, issue 03/2013, page 51
  2. ↑ Cinderella: Completed roller coaster ride, interview with Tom Keifer , Classic Rock online, accessed October 1, 2019
  3. ↑ Tom Keifer: This is how life plays (with and without Cinderella), Classic Rock online, accessed October 1, 2019
  4. ↑ Booklet of the CD
  5. ↑ Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 03/2013, page 97
  6. ↑ "ROCKS - The Magazine for Classic Rock", issue 01/2014, pages 50 to 57
  7. ↑ Rock Hard, Issue 313, May 22, 2013, accessed online on October 2, 2019