The FLASHBACK TOUR has been put on hold. Please check http://flashbacktour.com for updates.

Review by LORDS OF METAL, Netherlands

KING KARMA - Mama's Pride

Mausoleum Records

Well, Mausoleum Records surely is capable to surprise me this month because besides the very good debut album of Ceremony also this 'Mama's Pride' of the Canadian band King Karma is right on target in my opinion. The band plays a very catchy form of seventies hard rock with the necessary bluesy and southern rock influences and knows to maintain a high quality level during the total playing time of almost one hour divided over fourteen tracks in total (of which two are bonus songs).

I don't know what's going on, but this month I'm kind of spoiled with lots of new vocal talents because also with this band King Karma it's singer Shaun Williamson which steals the show here and really puts his mark on the overall sound of the band. Guitar player ..Markus.. Wolfe is the other band member that makes a big impression on me by means of his playful, bluesy guitar playing which really contributes to the great song material on offer here. The whole album is worthwhile to check out, but for me personally opening track 'Breathe', the Riverdogs-cover 'Revolution Man', the varying 'I'm Listening' and 'Devil's Road' are the best pieces of music. Because of the fact that most of the material on this record is already several years old (most of it dates back to 2005) and because the band was very busy writing new songs in 2007, I truly hope that it won't take too long for them to come up with a new album because this definitely asks for more!

Rating: 81/100. Clearly above average, you should check this one out..

Review online

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Review by METAL TO INFINITY, Belgium

King Karma - Mama's Pride

Mausoleum Records

Vancouver, Canada based King Karma is back with its second release entitled ''Mama's Pride''. I was unfamiliar with these guys until Mausoleum Records sent me a promo package within this great effort and other stuff. Curious as I was concerning King Karma's 'name of the game', I gave the album a few spins to write my review after all here are my thoughts about ''Mama's Pride''...

The band contains three Canadians named, Markus Wolfe-Guitars/mandolin, Todd Ronning-Bass and Rick Fedyk-Drums. The one in charge for all vocal lines is Shaun Williamson, he was born in Florida! At a very young age, Shaun became the singer of The Atlanta Rhythm Section after he was contacted by Lynyrd Skynyrd Leon Wilkeson. Through an audition that went very well, Shaun appeared with his new band in front of 70.000 fans at the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Starting a musical career like this - some can only dream about!

He joined the ARS ranks for three years; after all he headed to Europe - more specifically Germany where he formed a band called Backbone Slide who was managed by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. The band released a couple albums through Mausoleum Records, shared a lot of stages with famous greats,... to keep a long story short - Backbone Slide did it very well. Also worth to announce is the fact Shaun was also a member of other bands like The Moodies, Sunnyland Bluesband. Every outfit he popped up has had notable successes where booked.

Finally, he met King Karma's bassist Todd Ronning on his return to the States. KK back then was looking for a new singer with a feel for Blues Rock vocal lines. It's a genre you better stay away if your voice sounds crystal clear. Guys loaded with a boozy throat kinda like voice, made a chance to team up with King Karma. Shaun Williamson gave it a try - a bit later on, he became the official front man of the band who debuted with a self-titled album after a while. King Karma worked along with legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd / Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Johnson, a guy into the real stuff for many ages... hook him up and it can't go wrong for sure... satisfaction guaranteed! Never heard that first album, instead I can share my thoughts about their latest output entitled ''Mama's Pride''.

It's an almost 'one-hour' album that is made for the older generation of True Rock 'N' Roll music. Maybe we're bald and grey but the main thing is that we still believe in the real shit no matter what it takes. Once a rocker - always a rocker, too bad for those who can't get a grip on it. Well, this new album of King Karma is a pearl, a beauty, a truly 'must have' for sure if you're hooked on Classic or Blues Rock, also Classic Hard Rock and fans of Southern Rock better look out for an album like this. Absolutely nothing to do with 'Metal' - I can tell you that it really feels good to listen to ''Mama's Pride''. Influenced by bands like Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Whitesnake, Gov't Mule, Joe Bonamassa, Doc Holliday,... Great guitars breeding outstanding skills just like their drummer and bassist deliver - these guys are real professionals. The production is so damn great, I already scream for more to hear in the future. King Karma is obviously a band with a clear vision and full of ambition. A ticket to an international career is guaranteed.

Well, I especially lay my ears on a few 'personal faves' of mine such as: 'Revolution Man' which is a cover from Riverdogs, 'Mama's Pride', 'I'm Listening', 'Shake My Bones', 'Midnight Sunshine' (to name but a few). Efforts like this definitely let the good old times roll again - more great news around the band is that they are currently busy writing new songs and looking forward to hit the roads playing as much as possible concerts word wide. Final conclusion to me - excellent and very joyful, new release for the old school. Blues Rock as well as Southern Rock and Classic Hard Rock fanatics, this is your alley for sure!

MY POINTS: 85/ 100

Review online

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Review by ROCK PAGES, Greece

King Karma - Mama's Pride
Mausoleum Records

Those of you, Lynyrd Skynyrd or Bad Company nostalgic, will find your own shelter inside King Karma's new album. The Canadians have managed to transcend the sound and the Hard/Southern Rock/South Blues feeling themselves to their "Mama's Pride" album, even though they live a few thousand miles away.

The thing that got me from minute one in this CD, is the 70's nostalgia, listening to such a quality work, concerning compositions and production, which makes those fourteen songs sound so classic yet so fresh. There are no experiments here, nor any improvisations or technique demonstrations by the four musicians. There is only original Rock in here and nothing else.

"Mama's Pride" is a must for all the people who miss those sounds and I think there's a lot of them out there!

Dimitris Kazantzis....

Review online

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Review by SCARRED FOR LIFE - Germany

King Karma - Mama's Pride

Mausoleum Records

KK Officially released in Europe!
Category: Music

Check out KING KARMA at:

VT NEWS

BOOKINGS
RETRO PROMOTER LAUNCHES THE CLASSIC ROCK EXPERIENCE

Billboard art for "Flashback — the Classic Rock Experience"

Much as he did in the late 60s, early 70s when he was with East Coast Concerts and Concerts West, Rick Bowen is promoting his new creation, "Flashback – the Classic Rock Experience," the old way. He's promoting and co-promoting with venues, negotiating 80/20 merchandise deals, keeping ticket prices low and lining up classic rock radio stations as marketing partners.

The event is a flashback to the music of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, "the music I used to promote," and features major video and laser production along with 30 musicians on stage, many of them with some notoriety. Bowen said the idea for this "concert event" was hatched three years ago when he saw the Celine Dion production at the Colosseum in Las Vegas during a Concerts West reunion party and then attended a Trans-Siberian Orchestra holiday show at the Colonial Center in Columbia, S.C.

He decided to abandon his retirement from the music promotion business and create "Flashback," which many are also referring to as "The Mystic Orchestra," when his mind began envisioning along these lines: "What if you took all that TSO is doing and mix it with the video concept Celine had and present it with the music you were famous for presenting back in the 70s? What if Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin were on stage together? The show was born that night in my mind."

The first leg of the tour will play 8,000-10,000-seat arenas in 48-53 cities, Bowen said. Eventually, it will play about 100 cities a year. He envisions it as a perennial for arenas, coming back year after year as does TSO, but without the holiday timeframe of that group's Christmas show.

It will rehearse and open at the Mobile (Ala.) Civic Center, one of 23 SMG-managed venues on the initial route. The opening date is Aug. 27. Bowen has set a four-tiered ticket pricing scenario, generally $57, $37, $27 and $17, with a retro $7 ticket for children under what Rainbow Ticketmaster founder and Bowen partner Lou Dickstein calls "a liberal 12," and for radio promotions. "It's exactly like the old days for me. We want that one $7 ticket, the flashback ticket price that the radio station can promote out. They used to be $5 in advance, $6 day of show," Bowen said.

The average price per ticket will be $38, but it's scaled so that "Mom and Pop and a couple kids can come for less than $60," Bowen added.

Jay Hagerman, manager in Mobile for SMG, was among the first arena managers to jump on board when Bowen, an old friend from his own Concerts West days, called.  The tech rehearsal will occupy about 10 days, followed by the opening show, which can and cannot be a good thing, he said.

"As an arena manager in a B-market, this is fantastic," Hagerman said. "We need this type of programming. We're not going to get Bruce Springsteen."

Hagerman made the call to SMG to help Bowen book a route. Bowen met with the SMG marketers during the Event & Arena Marketing Conference in Washington, D.C., and hashed out a plan. "This is going to be a visual sell," Hagerman said.

Bowen said marketing will mirror family show campaigns, starting 60 days out in most markets. He will go heavy with television, followed by radio and print. He will utilize some billboards, which make a great visual for the show. In the small markets, he expects to spend $25,000-$40,000 on advertising; triple that in the A-markets.

Bowen is finalizing the fall route and starting on next spring. He is booking as many "nostalgia buildings" as he can, finding the viable, well-maintained arenas that are more than 20-years-old to add to the marketing potential. In Philadelphia, for instance, he's going into the Global Spectrum-managed Wachovia Spectrum, the nostalgia building, instead of the newer Wachovia Center.

Merchandise will skew toward the high end, "no $12 T-shirts," Bowen said. He is currently talking with potential third-party merchandisers, though his company may do it in-house. Ed Unitsky ("just Google him") is the creative artist. T-shirts will range from $20-$60; program books, $15; "plus lanyards and miscellaneous stuff, light up flashback fans, stuff for the kids, candles."

The show production will hang 50,000-60,000 pounds. It will travel in six trucks, unless they can pare it down to five or six buses. There are 30 in the cast, 32 in the crew. There will be a huge emphasis on lasers and video. "Our laser show is costing us probably $35,000 a week," Bowen said. "Lasers were big back in the Floyd era. Psychedelic stuff was big so we felt we wanted to put our money into that rather than firecrackers raining down sparks."

The production cost is budgeted at $85,000 per night, Bowen told Venues Today. That does not include rent, marketing and catering. He's hoping to average 6,000-10,000 attendance per show, five shows a week. "Break even, in most markets, is 40 percent," he said. "In a 10,000-seat hall, I need 4,200-4,300 seats to break even. In smaller markets, advertising and rental costs so much less."

The initial cost of production was $5.5 million, he said. The Mystic Orchestra "is not just five string players we pick up in every city. The orchestra is all pros, musicians who have been out with everybody from Yanni to Kanye West. The English guitar players are state of the art. We have some incredible vocalists. The music on this show is going to be jaw-dropping, like nothing you ever heard before," Bowen said.

The music director is Frank Gilcken. the Mystic Orchestra features 14 rock musicians and singers, as well as an 11-piece string-and-horn section, and includes guitarists Phil Hilborne and Jamie Humphries.

 National Arena Tour
Coming to a City near you!

A Classic Rock Arena Tour extravaganza

FLASHBACK

Performed by The Mystic Orchestra , Flashback—The Classic Rock Experience is a largescale arena production

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KING KARMA WINS AWARD FOR BEST ALBUM!

ROCKWIRED KTST-FM

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