Monday, August 13, 2007

Cruiser - Rollin' With the Times (1980)

Montreal's Cruiser are most known for their association with April Wine, having been the home of ex-drummer Richie Henman. Not much is known about the band's history, but their debut, "Rollin' With the Times", was issued in 1980 by Network Records and was seemingly met with great critical favor. Apparently the band even received interest from a major label, but split before their followup album could be completed. After the band split, Ed Stevens continued in the business working with Leyden Zar, as well as releasing instrumental music and working on soundtracks. The remaining member's whereabouts are unknown.

The album is a fantastic and diverse collection of tracks that touches on elements of hard rock, pop and AOR with wry lyricism and clever vocal arrangements. Most of the tracks here are excellent, with no shortage of hooks and tight musicianship. The band really hits its creative stride towards the end of the album, leaving the listener fully satisfied at its conclusion. Fans of Harlequin, Prism or Russia will find something to like here. Snap this one up, straight from the 'orchman' archives and hear the awe inspiring potential of one of Canada's forgotten talents.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ronnie

The rar-file is named wrabit192.rar. Did you mix up the files?BTW: Thanks!

Best

Rob

Anonymous said...

Hi Ronnie the Cruiser link is wrong,it's Wrabit-tracks again

Anonymous said...

Hi this link is wrabbit not cruiser .

Many thanks for all the great music ....some of which I have on vinyl which I bought long ago in the distant past ...hahaha!

Fantastic to get it here as mp3's . Love the Roadmaster albums..Thanks again for all the effort and time you spend making this a great blog .


Nils

JKR said...

Damn, my bad! Stand by for a link update :) Sorry folks!

micksguitar said...

great post. i never even heard of this lp. you're doing a fantastic job of getting these hard to find lps. thanx mick.

Anonymous said...

Another great find, this truly rocks all the way.

fairplaybeach said...

Lots of good tracks here. Running a business I particularly like the words to "Give Me My Money". I think I like best the mellow opener "R & R Survival" and "Things Gotta Change" is an uplifting attention grabber. It's all good... I like their sound. I do like Prism so good call that I'd like this...

Anonymous said...

Finally !!!
i found this album . had it in my collection ( which was stolen in a break to my apt years ago. dirty Dogs!! ).
am 60 years old and really miss my vinyl !!
Great group which really should have stayed around for a bit , much like Streetheart (Canadian Western Group ) who , finally got some recognition ( lead singer Kenny Shields had a great voice ) .
check out some of their stuff if you can find it , you will be amazed at this group.
so much good Canadian talent went ignored ( in the 70's & 80's )that , in my biased opinion , it was a travesty .

Oozlum said...

Terror in the Streets is true MONSTER! Thank you for opening my ears, Cruiser!!!

Anonymous said...

Tom Rathie ( bass) and Wally Rathie(keys) lived a few doors down from me. They were always playing, as far as I can remember (since 60's). Really good musicians.

Anonymous said...

I was the bassist in Cruiser (my idea for the name!). It was a very creatively free band. Unfortunately after one year Don Beauchamp wanted to go solo and that was ultimately the end of that. We had a second album in the can (John Lennon was killed as we recorded it). It is available through http://www.disquesreso.com/en/artists/
Thanks for listening,
Tom Rathie

Janis Beauchamp said...

UPDATE: Donald Beauchamp is alive & THRIVING - just released via CD Baby "AldonFairfield presents DAY ONE and 2 more albums ALL Original Music being released in the next few weeks! Flirting Angel Music!