Angeline

(1) Angeline is the edgy, haunting and emotionally charged “folk-rock” project of longtime Boston rockers Emily Grogan and Linda Viens. Both distinguished singer/songwriters with active solo careers, Emily and Linda began merging their voices and guitars in 2005. The delight of singing, working together and sharing “frontperson” responsibilities evolved into Angeline and the recording of their first record, “Powdered Pearls”, being released on the legendary Americana/Morphine label, HI-N-DRY on March 23, 2007.

(1) Angeline is the edgy, haunting and emotionally charged “folk-rock” project of longtime Boston rockers Emily Grogan and Linda Viens. Both distinguished singer/songwriters with active solo careers, Emily and Linda began merging their voices and guitars in 2005. The delight of singing, working together and sharing “frontperson” responsibilities evolved into Angeline and the recording of their first record, “Powdered Pearls”, being released on the legendary Americana/Morphine label, HI-N-DRY on March 23, 2007. The other members of Angeline are: Asa Brebner (bass, Asa Brebner Solo, Robin Lane And The Chartbusters, Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers, Idle Hands, The Family Jewels, Andrea Gillis), Cheryl Etu (vibes, Chupacabra), Michael Guardabascio (drums, Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers), and Meredith Cooper (violin, Sarah Rabdau, Paula Kelly). About 'Powdered Pearls': "...a lyrical depth not often seen in modern day pop music, and an impressive emotional range..." "...arrangements are mostly simple, always in service to the words and the mood; and the musicianship is stellar without being intrusive..." "...feeling like 60s protest music delivered by a front wall of strong, focused, and beautiful women backed by a double whack of Boston music history on bass and drums, Angeline also includes vibes and violin to complete its uniquely beautiful sound..." (2) Angeline is: Jocke Nilsson - Vocals & Guitar Janne Arkegren - Guitar Uffe Nilsson - Bass Tobbe Jonsson – Drums The swedish band “Angeline” already looks back on more than two decades in their vivid band history. After the bands foundation back in 1987 when most of the boys were still in their teens, they played their first gigs together, recorded a couple of demo songs and participated sucessfully in some musical contests. The position of the vocalist however was an ill-fated one due to original singer Jörgen “Sigge” Sigvardsson's bad heart condition from which he suffered his entire life and which caused complications during his recovery after undergoing surgery leading to his untimely passing in 1995.

During the years before “Sigge's” death the band celebrated some decent success with their live performances, which even lead to a couple of short concert trips to Italy. They also released some of their songs on the Mini-LP “Don't Settle For Second Best” (1990) and the CD Single “Rain” (1994). However a full album was denied the band during their early years. Also the approach to try out a different singer didn't lead to the success they had hoped for, so guitar player Jocke Nilsson took over the lead vocals and the band decided to become a full blown cover band which seemed to be the best choice, at least from a financial point of view. In 1997 they even recorded an album of cover versions, which was produced by Mats Lindfors (Europe, The Poodles, H.E.A.T.), who had already overseen the recordings of an unreleased 3-track demo a couple of years earlier.

Besides Jocke the 1997 version of the band included guitar player Janne Arkegren and drummer Tobbe Jonsson from the current Angeline line-up, after bassist Uffe Nilsson had temporarily left “Angeline” by the end of 1995.The transitional stage as a cover band lasted until 2001 when the formation eventually disbanded. The contact among the band members still remained, also because of the bi-annual Family day that was held since 1997 in memory of the late vocalist Jörgen “Sigge” Sigvardsson. In 2007 the former members of “Angeline” decided to perform a one-off show on this special day to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. Much to their surprise they realised that a new generation of Angeline fans had grown. Based on this pleasant surprise the four began to write and record new songs which ultimately led to the release of their first full length album of all original new material in more than twenty years.

“Confessions” sees the boys very cleverly combine the musical elements of the Melodic Rock, that was popular when they first started out, with supercatchy hooklines, multi layered harmonies and modern Rock sounds. The production of Jocke Nilsson sounds very big and powerful, which suits the guitar sound of the songs of “Angeline” extremely well. Both the vast number of riff oriented Rockers like “Pray!”, “Rock Of Ages”, ”Another Night”, “Blackout”, “Part Of Evolution”, “Good Is Getting Better” and “Someday Somehow” and “Love & Affection” and “Fuel To Your Fire” with its funky licks lead to catchy choruses bringing back great memories of the of the best days of Harem Scarem, the British band Gun and the Electric Boys, while adding the needed little extra to stand out from the crowd. And of course an outstanding Melodic Rock album like “Confessions” needs a larger-than-life ballad to be complete and “Miracles” is just that.(Words : Gregor Klee) User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..