Witness – Witness

One of the most sought after AOR albums ever. If you see ‘Witness in a bargain bin, buy it and hock it off on Ebay for zillions!

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Witness
ALBUM: Witness
LABEL: Arista
SERIAL: AL-8491 (LP), ARCD-8491 (CD)
YEAR: 1988
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

LINEUP: Debbie Davis – vocals * Damon Johnson – guitars * Joey Huffman – keyboards, guitars * Eddie Usher – bass * Eddie Boyd – drums

Additional Musicians: Neal Schone, Danny Chauncey, Brad Gillis, Tim Pierce – guitars * Steve Smith – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 Show Me What You Got * 02 Do It Til We Drop * 03 Am I Wrong * 04 Desperate Lover * 05 Let Me Be The One * 06 You’re Not My Lover * 07 Jump Into The Fire * 08 When It Comes From The Heart * 09 Borrowed Time * 10 Back To You

WEBLINKS: NA

Background

One of the most sought after AOR albums ever. if you see ‘Witness in a bargain bin, buy it and hock it off on Ebay for zillions! Believe me, some silly bugger will buy it for that price! Raved about at the time of release, and still raved about by those fortunate enough to own a CD of this, and much lusted after by those who don’t.

Primarily a project to showcase the talents of gorgeous singer Debbie Davis, and by crikey this girl can rock! She has the power of Alexa, mixed in with a bit of Sharon O’Neill on the softer stuff. I The backing band I’m sure is a bit of an after-thought, as many of the industry’s heavyweights play all over this album instead: Brad Gillis, Tim Pierce, Neal Schon and Steve Smith from Journey, and Danny Chauncey.

No surprise then with the album being recorded at Fantasy Studios, home of Kevin Elson. He and Bill Drescher throw their production talent into this venture and give it the class which lifts it head and shoulders over mostly everything released during 1988.

The Songs

There are some incredibly powerful moments on here, with the songs being topped off by the class acts of Gillis and Schon in particular. You hear their trademark guitar signatures throughout, Gillis on ‘Show Me What You Got’ and ‘When It Comes From The Heart’ while Schon blazes away on the mindblowing ‘Borrowed Time’ and ‘Back To You’, the latter sounding musically like it could fit quite nicely on the ‘Frontiers’ album.

‘You’re Not My Lover’ is wonderful stuff, and is better than the version Swedish band Dalton put out a year earlier on their album ‘The Race Is On’. ‘Let Me Be The One’ is a deadringer for an Alexa/Only Child song you’d swear it was written by the Elephant Boy himself Paul Sabu.

‘Am I Wrong’ also sounds like a Sabu penned track, and struts along dangerously like a pair of high heeled shoes on Rodeo Drive. ‘Desperate Lover’ features the guitar wunderkind skills of Tim Pierce and is a fairly urgent slice of hard rock.

In Summary

You gotta hand it to Ms Davis, she really shines on this album, and it’s a shame Witness didn’t go onto greater things. Debbie went on to work with Lynyrd Skynyrd long after this album, while Joey Huffman went on to Matchbox 20. Witness as an album is right up there as one of the premier AOR/melodic rock releases of all time. As an aside, refer to our interview with Joey Huffman from Sept 2000.

Video

Do It Till We Drop