The Petra Zone

Your dream band. Any Christian artist from any Christian band. For me....
Ken Tamplin- Lead Vocals (John Schlitt is a VERY close second... was tough)
Bob Hartman- Lead Guitars
Dana Key- Rhythem Guitar (RIP)
John Lawry- Keyboards
Timothy Gaines- Bass
Peter Furler- Drums
And Steve Taylor producing and co-writing the songs with Bob!

My "Dream Team" was Classic Petra. I was thoroughly disappointed when a second album was not produced.

blayze5150 wrote:And Steve Taylor producing and co-writing the songs with Bob!

I really don't think Steve Taylor and Bob Hartman would mesh as a song-writing team. The most satirical Hartman ever got was "Witchhunt", and that's pretty tame compared to some of the biting social commentary Taylor has written. Plus they're so stylistically different in terms of rhyming and cadence.

Hartman's songs tend to be a bit generic lyrically (no offense intended because I love his music), whereas I can always tell a Taylor penned song no matter who's singing it because his style is so distinctive.

On that note, I really wish Steve Taylor would consider doing another album. The way things are going in America, and especially in our churches, we could really use another sarcastic slap upside the head.

Edit: Apparenty Steve Taylor released an album last year, and I totally missed it!

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Goliath_(St ... lor_album)

I like Ken as a person, but I am kinda' tired of him as a singer. Once you have heard him, you have heard him.

I like too many types of music to have one dream team. If I did do one for rock, my dream team would consist of artist few have heard of. The Christian music pot is so small, and there are only so many quality choices, that no matter who I pic, it is all going to sound familiar. If I take any of the musicians away from the bands they are known for, I might not like what they do. I probably would only like what they do in context of the music I like. This is probably true for most people, because solo records for artists seldom sell as well as their band's. There are some exceptions (Phil Collins, Justin Timberlake, etc, etc). What I have found, especially in Christian metal, some artists can't step out of their genre. Not everyone can be a Bob Hartman, Rex Carroll, etc.

brent wrote:I like Ken as a person, but I am kinda' tired of him as a singer. Once you have heard him, you have heard him.

What do you mean by that? He's an extremely diverse vocalist and doesn't sing just one style. He can do anything from a crooning ballad to leather-lung metal.

Not to me. He sounds the same to me, no matter what he sings. It is just Ken at a lower volume to me. When he does the vocal school videos, he has them labeled, "Sing like Steve Perry." Yet, it is Ken singing like Ken. He doesn't have the texture or tone, and nobody can teach what comes naturally to another person. I like Ken as a person. He is just a one trick pony.

brent wrote:I like Ken as a person. He is just a one trick pony.

Ouch!

That's OK. David Lee Roth is a one trick pony. Ronnie James Dio was a one trick pony.

brent wrote:Not to me. He sounds the same to me, no matter what he sings. It is just Ken at a lower volume to me. When he does the vocal school videos, he has them labeled, "Sing like Steve Perry." Yet, it is Ken singing like Ken. He doesn't have the texture or tone, and nobody can teach what comes naturally to another person. I like Ken as a person. He is just a one trick pony.

People are often confused by his "vocal academy" videos because they think he's trying to teach how to impersonate another singer, which he's not. When his video says, for example, "How to sing like Steve Perry," his goal is to teach people how to use the same techniques that Perry used to achieve a similiar sound without hurting themselves.

However, I find it odd that you criticize Ken Tamplin for always sounding like Ken Tamplin. I mean, doesn't every singer in the world sound like themselves when they sing? Celine Dion always sounds like Celine Dion, John Schlitt always sounds like John Schlitt, Michael Crawford always sounds like Michael Crawford. I'm really not sure what you're getting at here.

And calling Tamplin a "one trick pony" seems unnecessarily harsh.

No, I get the purpose of the vocal academy. The thing is, if everyone sang what people have deemed the correct way, there would not be as personality and character in vocals. Consider Axel Rose not singing through his nose. There are many singers, including John, who are not technically correct, do not use vocal coaching, and they do what they do.

Ken teaches one of the methods for blasting. John is more of a speech level singer. So, Ken could never do a video like that.

Vocals- John Schlitt
Guitar- Rex Carrol
Bass- Greg Bailey
Drums- Lester Estelle (from Pillar)
Writing- Bob Hartman

brent wrote:That's OK. David Lee Roth is a one trick pony. Ronnie James Dio was a one trick pony.

You are so wrong on this, DLR doesn't have any tricks.

brent wrote:No, I get the purpose of the vocal academy. The thing is, if everyone sang what people have deemed the correct way, there would not be as personality and character in vocals. Consider Axel Rose not singing through his nose. There are many singers, including John, who are not technically correct, do not use vocal coaching, and they do what they do.

Ken teaches one of the methods for blasting. John is more of a speech level singer. So, Ken could never do a video like that.

The problem with incorrect technique is that it often wrecks a singer's vocal chords and shortens their careers. That's why Axl Rose doesn't really sound like Axl Rose any more -- these days he sounds more like somebody doing a bad Axl Rose impersonation; he just doesn't have the timbre and range that he used to. John Schlitt is one of the rare exceptions, which makes me suspect that he was able to discover proper singing techniques on his own, and good for him.

It's not that anybody has deemed a certain style "correct". Rather, it's objectively true that certain techniques are safer than others and will preserve a singer's voice. Honestly, I think Ken Tamplin deserves a lot more respect than you're giving him here.

I've never even heard of him...

I could try to compile a group of what I consider the ideal musicians, but it would probably have:
1 guitarist
2 singers
8 keyboardists

or something, and none of them would actually work together.

brent wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:33 am

That's OK. David Lee Roth is a one trick pony. Ronnie James Dio was a one trick pony.

Lol all these 'one trick ponies' are making me laugh. DLR is a one trick pony but that was kinda 'Ouch!' about Ken. Poor guy I kind of have made a teeny bit a fun out of those kinds of singers like Andy Lyon for Angelica's first slbym an' I feel kinda bad. They're all good singers no more one trick ponies guys, ok!