Witness (American band)

Witness
Witness
Also known as	Native
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genres	Hard rock, glam metal
Years active	1986–1988
Labels	Arista
Past members	Debbie Davis; Damon Johnson,; Eddie Usher,; Joey Huffman ; Eddie Boyd;

Last updated May 05, 2019

Witness was an Atlanta rock band that was signed to Arista Records in 1986 under the name Native and after changing their name, put out their self-titled debut album in 1988. The band consisted of lead singer Debbie Davis, guitarist Damon Johnson, bassist Eddie Usher, keyboardist Joey Huffman & drummer Eddie Boyd.

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. With an estimated 2017 population of 486,290, it is also the 38th most-populous city in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5.8 million people and the ninth-largest metropolitan area in the nation. Atlanta is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia. A small portion of the city extends eastward into neighboring DeKalb County.

Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the early 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and in the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style which drew heavily on the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, and from country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical styles. Musically, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political.

Arista Records, Inc. is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment and previously handled by Bertelsmann Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for Columbia Records. Until its demise in 2011, it was a major distributor and promoter of albums throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Today, the label's reissues and catalogue releases are handled by RCA Records and Legacy Recordings.

History

Witness album

After signing, the band relocated to San Francisco, CA to record the debut album. The album was produced by Bill Drescher & Kevin Elson & mixed/engineered by Drescher. The band, however, didn't write their own debut with singer Davis being credited with only 3 songs... "Jump Into the Fire", "Borrowed Time", and "Back to You".... the last 2 co-written by keyboardist Huffman as well as Journey guitarist Neil Schon. Michael Bolton wrote "Am I Wrong".

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a city in, and the cultural, commercial, and financial center of, Northern California. San Francisco is the 13th-most populous city in the United States, and the fourth-most populous in California, with 883,305 residents as of 2018. It covers an area of about 46.89 square miles (121.4 km²), mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second-most densely populated large US city, and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is also part of the fifth-most populous primary statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area.

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

Journey is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1973, composed of former members of Santana and Frumious Bandersnatch. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between 1978 and 1987 when Steve Perry was lead vocalist. During that period, the band released a series of hit songs, including "Don't Stop Believin'" (1981), which in 2009 became the top-selling track in iTunes history among songs not released in the 21st century. Its parent studio album, Escape, the band's seventh and most successful, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and yielded another of their most popular singles, "Open Arms". Its 1983 follow-up album, Frontiers, was almost as successful in the United States, reaching No. 2 and spawning several successful singles; it broadened the band's appeal in the United Kingdom, where it reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. Journey enjoyed a successful reunion in the mid-1990s and later regrouped with a series of lead singers.

Schon as well as fellow Journey drummer Steve Smith, Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis & 38 Special guitarist Danny Chauncey all featured prominently on the album. Unfortunately, this meant that neither Damon Johnson or Eddie Usher played on the recording.^[1]

Steven Bruce Smith is an American drummer best known as a member of the rock band Journey, rejoining the group for the third time in 2015. Modern Drummer magazine readers have voted him the No. 1 All-Around Drummer five years in a row. In 2001, the publication named Smith one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time, and in 2002 he was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Journey on April 7, 2017.

Night Ranger is an American rock band from San Francisco formed in 1979 that gained popularity during the 1980s with a series of albums and singles. The band's first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and have sold 17 million albums total. The quintet is best known for the power ballad "Sister Christian", which peaked at No. 5 in June 1984.

Bradley Frank "Brad" Gillis is a guitarist most famous for playing with the band Night Ranger. He was in the band Rubicon during the 1970s before Night Ranger. Since forming in 1979, Gillis and drummer Kelly Keagy are the only members to have appeared in every incarnation of the band and all studio releases. However, since Keagy missed several shows for the first time in 2017, Gillis is the only Night Ranger member to have appeared at every live performance in the band's history. He has also played for Ozzy Osbourne and Fiona, and has released solo albums. Gillis’s musical side projects include placing over 300 songs for ESPN’s Sports Center, The X Games, Fox Sports, Tiger Woods Sony PlayStation Games, EA Sports, The Fuse Channel and many others. He has appeared in over a dozen music videos, with TV performances on American Bandstand, Solid Gold, Rock & Roll Tonight and thousands of live concerts. He also participated in the one-time collaboration, Hear 'n Aid, for the promotional single, "Stars," which helped raise $1 million for famine relief in Africa. He was one of several lead guitarists to contribute guitar solos for the cause, including Vivian Campbell, Buck Dharma, and Neal Schon. His first solo album Gilrock Ranch produced a top twenty single, “Honest to God,” which was co-written and sung by Gregg Allman.

The album's first single/video for "Do It Til We Drop" got major Mtv airplay on Headbangers Ball in 1988 and was partially filmed when the band opened a 1987 concert for Lynyrd Skynyrd. The album opener 'Show Me What You Got' featured Gillis on the guitar solo and other album highlights include "Let Me Be the One", and "You're Not My Lover".

MTV is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of owner Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. The channel was launched on August 1, 1981, and originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys" (VJs). At first, MTV's main target demographic was young adults, but today it is primarily teenagers, particularly high school and college students.

<i>Headbangers Ball</i> music television program

Headbangers Ball was a music television program consisting of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV, MTV2, MTV Australia, MTV Rocks, MTV Adria, MTV Brand New, MTV Portugal, MTV Finland, MTV Arabia, MTV Norway, MTV Sweden, MTV Denmark, MTV Greece, MTV Türkiye, MTV Israel, MTV Hungary and MTV Japan. The show began on MTV on April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal and hard rock music videos late at night, from both well-known and more obscure artists. The show offered a stark contrast to Top 40 music videos shown during the day.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964 by Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns (drums). It is best known for popularizing the Southern rock genre during the 1970s. Originally called My Backyard, the band was also known by names such as The Noble Five and One Percent, before finally deciding on "Lynyrd Skynyrd" in 1969. The band gained worldwide recognition for its live performances and signature songs "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird". Van Zant, along with guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, were killed in an airplane crash on October 20, 1977, putting an abrupt end to the 1970s era of the band.

After the album

The band broke up after the first album, but three of the members went on to bigger/better success. Guitarist Damon Johnson, who didn't play on the album, became the frontman for Brother Cane and later became guitarist for Alice Cooper and Thin Lizzy. Keyboardist Joey Huffman later joined Brother Cane, Matchbox 20 and Soul Asylum. Singer Debbie Davis became a backup singer for Lynyrd Skynyrd on their 1994 tour, after a stint singing with the Ruperts Orchestra.(see Rupert's Orchestra YouTube for video).^[2]

Brother Cane is an American rock band that released three albums in the 1990s. The band was formed in 1990 by singer/guitarist Damon Johnson and bassist Glenn Maxey. Joined by guitarist Roman Glick and drummer Scott Collier, Brother Cane released their self-titled debut album in 1993. After the departure of Maxey, Glick switched to bass while the band added a new guitarist, David Anderson. Their song "And Fools Shine On" from their second album, Seeds, stayed at #1 on Billboard Rock Charts for six weeks and was included in the soundtrack for Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers in 1995, as well as three other songs, "Hung on a Rope", "20/20 Faith", and "Horses & Needles". The group disbanded shortly after the release of their final studio album, Wishpool, in 1998.

Alice Cooper was an American rock band formed in Phoenix, Arizona in 1964. The band consisted of lead singer Vince Furnier, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith (drums). Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and has had a solo career under that name since the band became inactive in 1975. The band was notorious for their elaborate, theatrical shock rock stage shows. In 2011, the original Alice Cooper band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Thin Lizzy are a hard rock band formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist and lead vocalist Phil Lynott, met while still in school. Lynott led the group throughout their recording career of twelve studio albums, writing most of the material. The singles "Whiskey in the Jar", "Jailbreak", and "The Boys Are Back in Town" were major international hits. After Lynott's death in 1986, various incarnations of the band emerged over the years based initially around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes, though Sykes left the band in 2009. Gorham later continued with a new line-up including Downey.

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References

↑ Album review
↑ "Artists :: WITNESS". MusicMight. Retrieved 2012-03-05.

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[1] Album review

[2] "Artists :: WITNESS". MusicMight. Retrieved 2012-03-05.