High Roller Records, white vinyl, ltd 300, poster, A4 insert, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, When the late great Rhett Forrester left New York’s Riot after their well received 1983 »Born In America« album, it did not take too long for him to start work on his first solo record. »Gone With The Wind« was originally issued on French label Bernett Records in 1984. »Even The Score« from 1988 was the second and last official solo album by Rhett Forrester as the legendary singer was shot and killed in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 22nd 1994 at the age of 37. Although »Even The Score« was not followed by another studio album, Rhett did not stop recording new music, collaborating with various musicians in different bands and projects over a period of six years until his untimely death in 1994. Two of them can be heard on »The Canadian Years«. Dr. Dirty (the group was initially called Mr. Dirty but the name was changed to Dr. Dirty because of the use of two D’s for a logo) was the brainchild of guitarist Rob Robbins. He explains: “Scot Gaines on bass and myself had been writing for almost a year when we ran into Rhett Forrester in Calgary. He had just finished his time with Rick Plester’s Black Symphony. We were looking for a singer to do some gigs with. Rhett’s name was brought up and we had a meeting with him, and it seemed like a great fit! We immediately played him the songs we had been working on. Rhett was always great in the studio getting his parts down. Totally pro. No matter what we would throw at him, Rhett always delivered a great performance.” The actual demo sessions for Dr. Dirty took place from 1992 through to early 1993. Rob Robins: “We did four songs in Calgary: ‘Red Bone Rock’, ‘Smoking Gun’, ‘In And Out’ and ‘Coming Home’. In LA we did ‘Rescue Me’, ‘Hold On’, ‘Love Song’ and ‘Too Little Too Late’. Originally we had some interest from a label just when the project split up.” Probably one of Rhett Forrester’s most unusual contributions had come in 1992 (just before the Dr. Dirty sessions) in the form of The Black Symphony (consisting of the three songs “In The Beginning”, “Redemption” and “End Of Time”). Black Symphony was the baby of Canadian guitarist Rick Plester, who explains: “I wrote all the material for The Black Symphony’s five record history pretty much. I placed ads in magazines all over North America for a lead singer and Rhett Forester answered. When he phoned me out of the blue, I was pleasantly surprised because I had been a fan of Riot before. A few weeks later we flew Rhett up to Calgary in Canada where I was living at the time. Days after his arrival we recorded three songs at a studio in Calgary. Rhett was very entertaining, he was fun to be around. I enjoyed his friendship. He was very driven and brought lots to the table. It was sad in the end I had to let him go due to his issues with drugs and burnt bridges.”
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