Celebration of Road To Forever

I need to preface this with saying I had just got done listening to most of TobyMac’s new album, which has a very hiphop flavor, so transitioning to this took a few songs and I had to go back and start over. While I do like TobyMac, this album is far more my style. Overall, I liked it alot. As you can see, I mention an 80’s sound frequently and I mean that as a very good thing.

Fall From the Grace of Love – Suits his voice, a kind of music I like, somewhere between 80’s pop and today’s country. Nice harmonies. A good sing-along song.

Girls in Black – More of a rock sound, kind of predictable. Very much an 80’s rock sound.

Wash Away – Talks about moving on from yesterday. Good lyrics with a nice rock track, nice combination of electric and acoustic guitar. Again, has an 80’s rock/pop sound. The ‘wash aways’ just before the three minute mark aren’t doing it for me, and seem to be synth-enhanced. The rest of the song is pretty good.

I Believe In You – Nice rock ballad. More nice harmonies. Again, an 80’s rock ballad sound. I like the lyrics. He has the voice for it. Another good sing-along song.

You Don’t Have Me – Another predictable rock track (not necessarily a bad thing). Almost an 80’s Hair band sound. Other than that, no comment.

Money – ‘Never easy come, just always easy go’. You got that right! Definitely lyrics most people can relate to. Nice guitar.

Someday – Not as good of a match for his voice, but he still does a good job with it. I can’t decide what I think of this song. I concentrated on the lyrics a lot. Lyrics a person can relate to, but on the other hand, it seems like one of those situations where sitting around and waiting for ‘someday’ is a waste of time and a person just needs to move on. (Yes, I did learn that the hard way).

Heal Me – I like the percussion. Song has some soul to it and some sort of tribal thing going on. Nice guitar, too. A very different song and not at all predictable. I read a review that said this was the best song on the album, but I prefer FFTGOL. This one had a lot of work put into it, though, and it shows.

Over You – Heartfelt is the word that comes to mind. He just kinda lays it right out there. There were moments where I thought I might cry. If you have anyone in your life that you aren’t over yet and should be, have a tissue handy. It’s a nice acoustic number. I would like to hear this one live.

Road To Forever – Nice harmonies. Great acoustic beginning, then some serious guitars and drums kick in. Definitely hard rock and again with an 80’s flavor.

Life’s Lullaby – I like hearing a great guitar player show off on acoustic. I guess growing up listening to Roy Clark will do that. It’s an interesting song. At first I wondered at his odd breathing ‘break’ in the middle of the word ‘lullaby’, but after a while I could see it was very intentional. It was hard to really follow the lyrics because I was concentrating on the guitar.

Give My Life – Some serious rock and roll and right after the above song, a bit of an eye-opener. Interesting lyrics, even if they are repetitive. Who you might be giving your life to as you sing along is open to your own interpretation. I can see myself singing this song in the shower a lot. Don’t worry, my neighbors are far away :grin:

She Runs Free (Bonus Track) – Another perfect 80’s rock sound.

Nice review!

My fav is Girls In Black as I'm a classic rock purist and love that hard rock guitar sound.

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Originally Posted by WalshFan88

Nice review!

My fav is Girls In Black as I'm a classic rock purist and love that hard rock guitar sound.

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Oh, and you're a guy!!!!

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Originally Posted by VAisForEagleLovers

Oh, and you're a guy!!!!

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LOL!

Thanks for starting this thread, VA. We must be reading each other's minds - I had planned on starting this tonight myself, so glad you did it.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on it, Dreamer!

VA - I've only listened to Road To Forever online about 3 times in its entirety so I can't really do a song-by-song review. I can just repeat some of what I said about it in another thread.

My initial impression was that it is a pretty good album and I definitely prefer it to Airborne. For the most part, I thought the songs are very 'listenable' and pleasant. A couple of songs on it I liked a lot - Fall From Grace and I Believe In You. I wanted to go back and give Over You another listen since several folks had mentioned it as a standout, but it's already been taken down. One complaint is something that I often have about albums - I would have preferred more variety in the songs. My biggest disappointment is that I think I was expecting a rockier sound from this 'guitar god' instead of mostly light mid-tempo stuff. I was just hoping Felder would have taken more opportunities to showcase his unique talents that he is best-known for. But I guess he wanted to go in a different direction and that is certainly his prerogative. I wish him success and hope it does well.

I'm getting back on topic & now that I've had a chance to really listen to this album. I'm going to give my review, song by song!

FALL FROM THE GRACE OF LOVE: I love the lyrics to this song & the great harmonies. I do believe I hear Graham Nash on this song. It's catchy too.

GIRLS IN BLACK; There is a harder rock guitar on this that I love & this is more like what I was expecting from him. Love his gritty voice on this too.
Nice guitar solo

WASH AWAY; Another favorite on the album with great harmonies Also nice guitar work here

I BELIEVE IN YOU; Love the softer side of him on this one

YOU DON"T HAVE ME; Whoever this song may be about, it doesn't really bother me, It's s little on the dark side, but OK

MONEY; This isn't one of my favorites but ok, some nice guitar riffs

SOMEDAY; I like Felder's vocal on this one

HEAL ME; Another softer song with nice lyrics& some nice guitar work, I like the ending with the Jamaican vibe

OVER YOU; Another personal song Heartfelt with a nice vocal. Shows a higher range in his voice here

ROAD TO FOREVER; Reminds me of a CSN type of song. I like it a lot

LIFE'S LULLABY; Another mellow song. Love his soft voice on this sweet song

GIVE ME LIFE; Love this one. I like the mix of the softer vocal with some harder edge guitar.

Overall, the album is a lot more mellow than what I thought it would be. favorite songs are Fall From Grace, Girls In Black, & Wash Away.

I've finally had a chance to listen and just a couple points I wish to make.

I see that Dreamer mentioned this already but I'd like to add that I also was expecting it to be a little more rock oriented for some reason. Was a bit disappointed that it wasn't.

As for favorite song(s), one stands out for me, and that's Wash Away. Had I not already known who was harmonizing on it with Don, it wouldn't have taken me but a few seconds to figure it out. Tommy's voice is so distinctive. Really like it!!

VA, One question?? I saw that you mentioned that many of the songs seemed to have a vibe from the 80's. I really don't see that. I think Felder's songs are more modern & kind of mellow. I see the 80's as the "Hair band rock" & the "pop" era. I'm not really feeling that from Don's album. Just curious as to why you think it has an 80's sound?

If anything it's more of a throwback to the mellow harmonies of the 70's mixed in with a bit of his rock guitar work, but I do think he could have used more rock guitar & less of that mellow harmony sound....JMHO :)

TK, I guess it's all subjective, but I guess I delineate it the same way SiriusXM does. Maybe because I've been a subscriber for seven years! But they have the 80's station which plays it all. Hair Nation which plays the hair band rock sound. Then there's Classic Rewind, which is mostly 80's rock. Artists I'm thinking of are Don Henley (of course!), Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Cars, Police, Journey, Genesis, Mellencamp, AC/CD, Pat Benetar, Boston, Van Halen, Bob Seger, Springsteen, Cheap Trick, you get the idea.

The Hair Rock bands, to me, are more like Bon Jovi, Ratt, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Europe, etc.

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Originally Posted by VAisForEagleLovers

TK, I guess it's all subjective, but I guess I delineate it the same way SiriusXM does. Maybe because I've been a subscriber for seven years! But they have the 80's station which plays it all. Hair Nation which plays the hair band rock sound. Then there's Classic Rewind, which is mostly 80's rock. Artists I'm thinking of are Don Henley (of course!), Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Cars, Police, Journey, Genesis, Mellencamp, AC/CD, Pat Benetar, Boston, Van Halen, Bob Seger, Springsteen, Cheap Trick, you get the idea.

The Hair Rock bands, to me, are more like Bon Jovi, Ratt, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Europe, etc.

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Well, I just don't see the connection of Felder's album to any of the bands you mentioned, so I'm not really seeing Road to Forever having anything similar to an 80's sound.

I'm listening to the tracks for the first time. Sounds like a very solid album. The melody and chords in the verses of "I believe in you" remind me very much of "King of Hollywood"!!
Occasionally, in certains songs, Don's voice reminds me of Billy Gibbons, and that is not a bad thing!

Oh My I have so much to say about RTF Album, I guess I'll better be back once I have a few Mins ;)

Happy 7th Birthday to Road to Forever. I like some songs from this album.

Happy Anniversary to Road to Forever!!

It seems a lot longer than 7 years for some reason.

I do enjoy this album, and it shows Don has some strong songwriting skills. It would be better if his vocals sounded the same as they did on Airborne however.

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Originally Posted by Topkat

VA, One question?? I saw that you mentioned that many of the songs seemed to have a vibe from the 80's. I really don't see that. I think Felder's songs are more modern & kind of mellow. I see the 80's as the "Hair band rock" & the "pop" era. I'm not really feeling that from Don's album. Just curious as to why you think it has an 80's sound?

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This is an old post but I pretty much agree with it.

It's funny - it seems less than 7 years to me! RTF is still my fave of Felder's albums.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy belated anniversary to Road to Forever.

Happy 9th Anniversary to Road to Forever!!

I listened to this album for the first time in a long while and it is better than I remembered. This is Don’s best solo album imo and it shows some fine songwriting - LROOE definitely could have benefited from Don’s contributions. The title track is really strong and overall the album shows growth and maturity as well as some vulnerability. It’s main weakness is that Don just doesn’t have a great voice, though he tries to use it as best he can.

I remember liking the bits I've heard. Strong material. I kinda like his voice too.

HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY TO ROAD TO FOREVER!