By Stephen Kasenda
BATON ROUGE "Shake Your Soul" (1990)
Hailing from Louisiana, the idea of naming the band Baton Rouge is pretty obvious to everyone. But actually when they started the band as Voices, Kelly Keeling was responsible for handling rhythm guitar and keyboard while Lance Bulen performed vocals. When they moved to LA, Voices changed their name and Keeling and Bulen switched positions - the rest is history. Baton Rouge's musical style is pure melodic rock, a mix of Bon Jovi and Germany's Bonfire or Fair Warning. Kelly Keeling has a great voice, quite close to Sammy Hagar's timbre, and he was the center of attention.
"Shake Your Soul" came up too late in 1990 when glam metal began to fade, and the band was soon forgotten not long after their debut was released. This record was quite mediocre compared to other better quality releases, but still I think this album has several enjoyable tunes such as "Doctor", "Walks Like A Woman", "Melenie", "There Was A Time", and "Bad Time Comin' Down". The rest are passable except for "Hot Blood Movin'" and "It's About Time" which I think are just okay.
The production level is good and with Keeling's great voice and several great songs, "Shake Your Soul" is a good buy if you like later day glam metal, but it’s far from essential. If you can pick this up cheap, it's not a bad idea to grab one to stuff into your CD rack.
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