Night Ranger - 40 Years And A Night With The Contemporary Youth Orchestra

Recorded in Cleveland at the Key Bank State Theatre on November 9, 2020, just eight days after the fortieth anniversary of the release of their debut album Dawn Patrol, 40 Years And A Night With The Contemporary Youth Orchestra is the outstanding new live release from Night Ranger.  The concert was for the Second Annual Danny Ripepi Memorial Concert, honoring the brother of the band’s tour manager Ed Ripepi, who was killed in an automobile accident in 2020.  Accompanying them for this performance was the insanely talented Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) comprised of over eighty musicians from twelve to eighteen who study and perform orchestral music that is exclusively contemporary and new.  Instead of completely recreating their songs as so many bands tend to do when playing with an orchestra, the arrangements are largely unchanged here and the orchestra, for the most part, does a great job of enhancing the songs.  Tracks like “Four In The Morning”, “Sing Me Away”, “Call My Name” and “Goodbye” are perfect examples of the orchestra fleshing them out to full effect.  While the orchestra is a little more subdued on rockers like “(You Can Still) Rock In America”, “High Road” (taken from their 2014 album of the same name, and the only song here not from one of their first three albums) and “Night Ranger”, they still add a nice texture (unfortunately, “Night Ranger”, always one of my favorites of their songs, is drug down a bit with a bass and drum solo section in the middle).  Another notable track is ”Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”, which is almost nine minutes long and has some great sections where the orchestra really gets to stretch out.  As for the band, now consisting of original members Jack Blades (bass and vocals), Brad Gillis (lead and rhythm guitars) and Kelly Keagy (drums and vocals), along with Keri Kelli (lead and rhythm guitars) and Eric Levy (keyboards), who have been permanent members of the band since 2014 and 2011 respectively, their performance hasn’t lost anything over the years and they just sound like they are having a good time.  Blades vocals sound a little different than in the earlier days, but he and Keagy can still deliver the goods, the harmonies are still top-notch and Gillis nails those classic guitar solos.  My only complaint with the release is the fact that there are four tracks they played that night that aren’t included here (their cover of Damn Yankees’ “High Enough” is included as a bonus track in Japan).  Whether you are a longtime fan or just know them from their hits, 40 Years… is a refreshing listen that shouldn’t be missed.  

(Frontiers Music)