For Immediate
Release
Filling a Long Vacant Niche in Pop Music, Performing
Songs
With Stories, Substance and Multi-Layer Harmonies,
The
Popular Six-Piece Band Launches ‘Unlocked,’ Its Upcoming Debut
Album of
‘New Classic Rock’ With A Highly Anticipated
Weekend
Residency in the Wolf Theatre at the Clarion Hotel & Casino
This summer, hundreds
of thousands of music fanatics will flock again to Las Vegas to see legends and those impersonating legends satisfy
their thirst for the way pop music used to be. From “Jersey Boys” and “Rock of
Ages” to Elton John, Rod Stewart, even Donny and Marie, everyone wants to experience what we’ve all been
missing on pop radio for far too long: songs with stories, lyrics of substance,
strong lead vocals and soul-stirring, multi-layer harmonies.
But why settle for
nostalgia when a Vegas-based band that’s in love with the classic pop/rock of
the ‘70s and ‘80s is right up the road, performing songs so fresh and new yet
so familiar in style that a whole new phrase (“New Classic Rock”) had to be coined to capture the way they work
their magic on the fans?
Johndale Stanley, co-founder, keyboardist and one of the lead
vocalists of the six-piece Forgotten
Door (www.officialforgottendoor.com), explains the origins of their unique
name: “We want to communicate that there is still good music out there that has
heart and soul like the great pop/rock we grew up with. The ‘forgotten door’ is
a passage back into the things people loved and got excited about then. Our
fans tell us they love songs like ‘Hotel
California,’ ‘Long Train Runnin’
and ‘Rhiannon,’ but they’ve heard
them a million times. They want new music created in that vein that they can
feel passionate about. They’re emotionally thirsty to hear something fresh.”
Unlike most groups that
long to tour the U.S. and world, Forgotten Door is excited about staying in
town, performing for residents, tourists, conventioneers, etc. Celebrating the
upcoming release of their highly anticipated, appropriately titled debut album Unlocked, the eclectic
band—whose lineup includes co-founder, vocalist and guitarist Lonnie Danley, lead vocalist Melody Ritz, lead and slide guitarist,
and vocalist Michael Seal, bassist Karl Gottmann and drummer Kevin Brennan—is starting an
unprecedented six month weekend residency in July in the Wolf Theatre
at the Clarion Hotel & Casino (305
Convention Circle Drive, Las Vegas 89109).
Prior to the official
opening night of Friday, August 16,
the group will do open to the public previews the weekends of July 26-28, August 2-4, and August 9-11.
Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. for the 7 p.m. shows on Fridays and Saturdays– a
slot that is perfect for fans to launch a night of fun on the town (and the
nearby Strip). On Sundays, the show
will start at 9 p.m. Ticket prices are $47.97 General Admission - $57.97 VIP,
and booths for four are available for $195. Tickets can her purchased here: https://www.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?t=tix&e=936b095b8f218e4a1fe6119ab747767a.
Forgotten Door, whose members are all veteran
musicians and entertainers, have created a powerful audio-visual experience
complete with dramatic lighting designed to bring out the textures and nuance
of each song. Many fans and critics have compared the male-female and creative
dynamics of the band to that of what Fleetwood
Mac became after Lindsey Buckingham
and Stevie Nicks joined in the mid-‘70s.
The nine songs on Unlocked showcase the group’s depth, anchored by the
versatile songwriting and production skills of Stanley and Danley, the band’s
creative core. Michael is also a contributing songwriter and Melody is a lead
vocalist on several tracks, including the first single to be released, the
mid-tempo pop rocker “Masquerade.”
When Johndale is singing lead, Lonnie, Melody and Michael do harmony vocals.
When Melody is out front, Johndale, Lonnie and Michael take the harmonies.
Stanley sees his overriding task as “taking all the
songs the members bring to the table and forging them into a collective
Forgotten Door sound. In essence, what we are doing is drawing from our great
array of classic influences and creating music that has our own unique
signature on it. We’re working hard on bringing something genuine and that
moves people to the contemporary musical landscape.”
Earlier versions of songs on Unlocked have
already made a happy commotion on Vradio.com,
a popular internet radio station with some four million listeners, owned and
operated by Big Poppa G.
“Masquerade” spent 27 weeks on his chart and “Puerto Penasco” went 24, hitting #1—meaning that it snagged 40,000
requests by internet and phone. In all, four Forgotten Door songs charted on
the station as part of a test marketing effort—an achievement all the more
remarkable since the website’s main consumers are R&B and rap fans.
Considering how their last names rhyme, perhaps it
was musical destiny when bride and groom called Stanley and Danley,
respectively, to sing for a wedding back in 1994. Their perfect blend of lead
and vocal harmonies led to a long lasting musical partnership, which
skyrocketed when melody Ritz joined the group. The three enjoyed performing as
a popular local cover band for a handful of years, but in time they decided the
only way to move forward was to write and perform original material.
“When Lonnie first told me he wanted to write originals,
I was skeptical, but then I heard his song ‘Far Far Away’ and I realized this was no joke, that we could
actually do this,” says Stanley. “We started retooling in 2007-8 and within a
year of that song being written, I had also penned my first tune, a personal
and emotional song called ‘Gypsy Woman.’
As our vibe developed and people started responding to it, we realized people
really wanted to hear something fresh, that sounds familiar even when they’re
hearing it for the first time. That’s what the Forgotten Door aesthetic is all
about.”
Over the years, when they were a cover band, they
performed gigs and corporate events at numerous venues in Las Vegas, including
the Hard Rock, Stratosphere, Las Vegas
Hilton, Club Madrid (at Sunset
Station) to name a few. A few years ago, classic rock station 96.3 KKLZ held a battle of the bands at South
Point hotel as part of the annual Junefest.
Forgotten Door won the showroom event, which gave them the opportunity to open
for Terri Nunn and Berlin, Steppenwolf and Sly and the
Family Stone. Justin Chase from
the radio station later hooked them up to perform in the Neon Garage at the Las Vegas
Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Truck
Series event in 2010.
Like every great emerging band, Forgotten Door has
a colorful back story that involves haggles with outside producers and what
Stanley calls “raging storms during the making of this album.” The band has
endured many trying times that have solidified their creative and personal
relationship and given rise to a fierce member to member loyalty and a rich
authenticity that translates to a powerhouse recording debut and a dynamic
stage show.
“We’re most looking forward to showing the world
that there’s a band out there that’s filling the gap and playing new music in
that classic vein,” Stanley adds. “I’ve heard it said that music is emotion
hung on a note, and our goal is always to move people in such a way that they
are motivated to buy our album as a souvenir of our live musical experience,
which has also given them joyful memories they can take with them. Looking
forward to our residency at the Clarion, we want longtime fans to be excited
about our new venture and hope that newcomers who decide to take a chance and
check us out will leave thinking that something very cool and exciting is going
on here.”
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