Greg Lake releases new live CD, ‘Songs of a Lifetime’
BY: Dawn Lee Wakefield
One thing that music lovers and record collectors of music from the 1960s and 1970s have in common are stacks and stacks of favorite 33 LPs collected through the years, the vinyl well played and the liner notes well read. Doubtlessly those stacks include the works of Greg Lake from his former bands, King Crimson and the iconic Emerson Lake and Palmer. On Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, legendary singer/songwriter Greg Lake released his new live CD, “Songs of a Lifetime” for all Greg Lake fans to enjoy. Lake made his Texas Tour in Houston and Austin last summer, 2012. Audiences were then fortunate enough to hear live previews of the songs that are part of Lake’s new CD.
“Songs of a Lifetime” features live recordings from selected shows performed on his 2012 tour. Lake said, “This is not one of those boring shows sitting on a stool strumming folk songs, I purposely set out to make this show dynamic and entertaining with lots of drama and pathos, even some humour at times as well. Everyone feels part of the performance because we all bonded by the shared memories of our musical journeys together.”
The much-anticipated new CD is available from the United Kingdom via the Internet on the lable Esoteric Antenna, distributed through Cherry Red Records. Have you ever wanted to just sit down with one of your favorite artists and have a one-on-one discussion to learn more about them, their lives, and what drove them to pick music as a career?
Fortunately, Greg Lake fans can put this CD on and get the sense of being one-on-one with their favorite singer. Lake will soon be releasing his autobiography, “Lucky Man,” which is an audio narrative of Greg’s favorite memories and experiences throughout his career, from childhood to present day. Both a print edition and audio book read by Lake are expected by the end of 2013.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Greg Lake is on the road, and planning tours in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, and South America. His new “Songs of a Lifetime” concert show puts the audience one-on-one with Lake in intimate settings that have a comfortable living-room feel. He’s funny, engaging, reflective, and in perfect voice after many years of perfecting his style, a songwriter’s songwriter, in fact.
So many Baby Boomer hits were those of Lake’s days with King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. So the concert CD, the biography is a natural next step. Lake said, “Behind these songs there were often stories to be told and it occurred to me that the same must be true for the audience as well. It was then that I thought of the idea of doing a series of very small intimate concerts where I could perform these songs and exchange stories with the audience, in a way reliving the time when the music we shared together really became part of our identity and in a way became the backdrop to our lives, a sort of tapestry I suppose.”
A montage of the new Greg Lake concert series is seen in the YouTube video that accompanies this story. On the CD you’ll hear “21st Century Schizoid Man,” “Tribute to the King” (Lake actually go to hear Elvis in concert and a version of “Heartbreak Hotel” is equally poignant), “Epitaph/The Court of the Crimson King,” “I Talk to the Wind,” “C’est La Vie,” “My Very First Guitar,” (a story that will bring tears to your eyes), and of course, “Lucky Man.”
Greg Lake’s new CD is a perfect salvo if you’re kicking yourself for missing his tour last year in person. Put “Songs of a Lifetime” in your CD player and make sure you don’t miss his 2013 live tour when he comes to Texas. Oh, and turn up the CD for the song-opener “21st Century Schizoid Man.” Wake the neighbors if you have to; like everything else Greg Lake does, it’s first rate, and best enjoyed by many.
Glass Onyon PR 
March 5th, 2013 at 00:28
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