Morano - Incognito (2019)

Feel good rock and roll is how I describe this CD. For my first-ever release, titled “Incognito”, I set out to capture everything I loved about the music of my youth. Loud guitars, amazing vocals and songs that told stories about life. To help me on my mission, I assembled a stellar supporting cast of musicians that are well-known to rockers worldwide. Tyketto’s Danny Vaughn, Extreme’s Pat Badger and Kevin Figueiredo, FireHouse’s Michael Foster and Bill Leverty, XYZ’s Terry Ilous, The Firm/Blue Murder’s Tony Franklin and Alice Cooper’s Nita Strauss among others.

"Incognito" came together in a huge stroke of luck. “I had known Bill Leverty for a great many years, so he was in from the beginning. Back in 2016, I was having dinner with Bill and was asked if I was ever going to unshelve a CD I started working on years ago. After some thought, I finished a few of the tracks in my studio and sent them to Bill to be mixed. As we listened to the mixes, it became clear to both of us I needed to get rid of the programmed drums, find a bass player instead of a guitar player trying to play bass and get someone that could sing what I was struggling to attempt. Changes needed to be made. That was when Bill suggested his drummer Michael Foster, so I gave him a call.

The next step was finding the right vocalists to fit the handful of songs that were ready. I had my MP3 player on shuffle and Great White’s "Hard To Say Goodbye" came on and I thought that Terry’s voice would be a great fit for a song and so I reached out to him and he asked to hear it. I sent him an MP3 with Michael and Tony playing on it. Terry was a bit surprised that - as a guitar player - I hired a bass player and didn’t do it myself which is typical in self-funded, small budget projects. After explaining, Terry saw I was willing to do what’s best for the music and liked the song so he agreed to sing a song or two. As the project progressed and we got to know each other, we started trading ideas back and forth, writing and arrainging and ultimately ended up with 5 songs for consideration on this CD.