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Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway
Craig Brooks - Desolation Freeway Album Art

Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR
4.5/5.0

Official
Escape Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 19.02.2025 | Released: 21.02.2025

Most will need a small memory nudge to recall American guitarist, singer, and songwriter Craig Brooks. His professional music career began in the late Seventies when he joined American Tears for their third album, Powerhouse. Subsequently, after some personnel changes, he became the co-founder of Touch, whose 1980 eponomyous debut album yeilded two notable singles: Don’t You Know What Love Is and Call Me When The Spirit Moves You. This success led to the band performing at the very first (and now very famous) Castle Donnington Monsters of Rock music festival (with Scorpions, Judas Priest, et al). A second album, produced by Todd Rundgren in 1982 was never released until the compilation of both albums, The Complete Works I & II dropped in 1998.

Post Touch, Brooks would record with Michael Bolton (single: Fool's Game) and Roger Glover (Mask) while also, in following decades, pursue careers in in design and illustration. Fast forward to 2015 wherein Brooks and the other original Touch members began discusing musical ideas, and a possible new and third Touch album. Recording for Tomorrow Never Comes began in 2019, and the album released in 2021 on the Escape Music label. Which brings us to the present.

Craig Brooks - Click For Larger Image

Craig Brooks

Having written three songs for the latest Touch album, Brooks kept writing and recording new material. Wherein he invited Touch member Mark Mangold to assist in recording his first solo album. The result is Desolation Freeway which also features contributions from Josh Devine on drums (One Direction, Turkish Delight, et al) and Touch bass player Doug Howard.


Musically, Desolation Freeway is a logical, and natural, extension from Brooks's Touch roots: some very guitar-forward classic melodic hard rock in an AOR wrapper. This is self-evident from the riff driven tunes Takes One To Know One, End Of The Line, Modern Love, and roaring first single, Testify. Perhaps leaning more to the subtle AOR side is Desolation Freeway and Across The Great Divide. Alternatively, Lady Lies is more steady and heavy with tougher riffs and a thick bottom end. Throughout Brooks displays his guitar chops with lively and fiery guitar solos.

For a debut solo album of classic, guitar-driven, melodic hard rock, Craig Brooks' Desolation Freeway is a fine first effort, demonstrating his impressive songwriting skills and versatile guitar playing. Recommended for any fan of the genre.


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The Take Away

For a debut solo album of classic, guitar-driven, melodic hard rock, Craig Brooks' Desolation Freeway is a fine first effort, demonstrating his impressive songwriting skills and versatile guitar playing. Recommended for any fan of the genre.

Support the artist, click the link below to buy the album at Amazon (US site) in your favorite format.

Purchase Craig Brooks - Desolation Freeway at Amazon
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