DECARLO released their debut album “Lightning Strikes Twice” through Frontiers Music on 24th January. The album is great example of how melodic rock should be done – but then singer Tommy DeCarlo has been fronting rock legends Boston since 2007. I’ve often said that I’m not a huge fan of anything too AOR or overly melodic and that there needs to be sufficient ‘rock’ to merit the label! DECARLO certainly delivers on that. The title track “Lightning Strikes Twice” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 13th December and there will be a track on the NI Rocks A-Z Show this month.
Tommy DeCarlo was a Boston fan working as a Credit Manager at Home Depot in North Carolina when Tom Scholz from the band heard him perform a song in tribute to Boston singer Brad Delp in 2007. Within a few months DeCarlo was the new vocalist for Boston.
Tommy formed the band DECARLO in 2013 along with his son Tommy DeCarlo Jr who plays guitar. It also now includes Dan Hitz on drums and Brett Nelson on bass. The band has been touring around the USA for a few years and recently played at the Frontiers Rock Festival in Milan.
There are 12 tracks on the album, all written by Tommy DeCarlo, including two co-written with Tim Barrett. When I interviewed Boston guitarist Gary Pihl in June 2019 he revealed that he had been working with singer-songwriter Tim Barrett and that when DeCarlo approached him about tracks for the new album that he had sent him those tracks by Barrett. (http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/3605-ni-rocks-interview-with-gary-pihl-from-alliance-and-boston.html)
Check out the band’s Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/DECARLOROCKS/
About “NI Rocks Recommends”
This is purely a personal recommendation and some information about the artist and the album; not a traditional ‘review’. Most of the recommendations posted are for albums that have been sent to us digitally by the record label or promoter. Quite often I’ve also bought the album on CD or vinyl as well and sometimes I just feel the need to post a recommendation for an album that I’ve bought myself. Essentially these are albums that I like and which I’ve played some tracks from on the Shows on Rock Radio NI!