Released in 1994, you can be assured that Royal Jelly are not in the bullseye of AOR nor melodic hard rock. Royal Jelly fell into the mould of mid 90’s rock with a psychedelic edge. Many bands digressed to this style around this time, much to their detriment.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Royal Jelly
ALBUM: Royal Jelly
LABEL: Island
SERIAL: 314-524 015-2
YEAR: 1994
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Johnny Edwards – vocals, rhythm guitar, slide guitar, sitar * Daniel Steigerwald (a.k.a Danny Stag) – guitars * Jeff Klaven – drums, harmonica * David Seaton – bass
Guest: Susannah Hoffs – tambourine
TRACK LISTING: 01 Ceiling * 02 Bend * 03 House * 04 Sky * 05 Generator * 06 Reptile * 07 Spin * 08 Man * 09 Sun * 10 Bluebirds * 11 Hold On
Background
With the recent article on Kentucky band Buster Brown published the other day, we continue to follow the career of vocalist Johnny Edwards, culminating in this mid 90’s affair: Royal JELLY. Released in 1994, you can be assured that Royal Jelly are not in the bullseye of AOR nor melodic hard rock. That’s a shame really, as three of the quartet all have a strong history in the 80’s era of arena rock.
Edwards previously with the aforementioned Buster Brown, Montrose, King Kobra, and of course Foreigner. Daniel Steigerwald is better known by his alias Danny Stag, the lead guitarist for Lenny Wolf‘s Kingdom Come. Drummer Jeff Klaven spent time with Memphis melodic rockers Cobra and then Swiss veterans Krokus.
Royal Jelly fell into the mould of mid 90’s rock with a psychedelic edge. Many bands digressed to this style around this time, much to their detriment. Why did they even bother?
The Songs
The album opens with the exotic ‘Ceiling’. It sounds similar to David Hallyday‘s awesome Blind Fish album of the same year, though it certainly is very different to the material Edwards and co have worked on in the past.
As with many albums from this timeframe where bands seemed to populate their songs with single syllabic titles, the same applied to Royal Jelly, who were struck down with this curse.
Songs like ‘Bend’, ‘House’, ‘Man’, ‘Sun’, ‘Sky’ and ‘Spin’ don’t really encourage the listener to venture further. I only bothered with a handful of tracks, such as the groovy sounds of ‘Man’, the bluesy ‘Bluebird’ and the rather trippy ‘Hold On’, but the rest didn’t do a lot for me I’m afraid.
In Summary
This would be the only album for Royal Jelly. Edwards would return to his hometown of Louisville, and opted out of the business for a better paying gig in the telecommunications industry. Maybe one day, Johnny can be swayed to resurrect Buster Brown for some reunion gigs, or maybe do something with former bandmate James Kottak, now that he is no longer with The Scorpions.
Royal Jelly on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
