Stairway (band)

Stairway was an English "New Age Music" band, who have released a total of 5 CDs and cassette tapes between 1986 and 1995.[1]

History

After The Yardbirds' mid-1980's reunion project (known as "Box of Frogs"), drummer Jim McCarty reunited with bassist Louis Cennamo (a colleague from McCarty's days with Renaissance, and later Illusion) to form "Stairway" - a duo who would record largely instrumental and "atmospheric" music.[2] In a departure from their usual roles in bands, for this project McCarty played keyboards and Cennamo (who is credited on Stairway releases as "Loui") played guitar.[3]

Stairway was signed with Colin Wilcox of "New World Cassettes", a U.K.-based independent label that specialized in "healing music".[4] Their first releases were two cassette tape albums: Aquamarine (1987) and Moonstone (1988), a mixture of songs and instrumentals.[5] Additional musicians on these releases included keyboardist Clifford White, and a Renaissance and Illusion colleague, vocalist Jane Relf. Although only available as cassette tapes initially, Stairway’s "New World Cassettes" albums were eventually both released in Compact Disc format.[6][7]

These releases were subsequently followed by two albums with the Psychologist and "Spiritual Healer", Malcolm Stern:[8] Chakra Dance (1989) and Medicine Dance (1992),[9] which they promoted through a few live performances, mainly at St James's Church, Piccadilly (London)[10]

After a few years between releases, Stairway resurfaced once more as "James McCarty/Louis Cennamo" on Canadian flute player Ron Korb’s Oasis label, releasing the Raindreaming CD in 1995.[11]

There have been no new releases by Stairway since 1995 (McCarty has more recently been active with a re-formed version of The Yardbirds,[12] and Cennamo has returned to playing bass and doing sessions, in addition to having begun a writing career.[13] In 2015, Angel Air Records released a Stairway "best of" compilation, titled "Pearls Of The Deep".[14]

Chronological Discography

¤ Note: These two releases were initially available as cassette tapes only. A CD that included tracks from both tapes was later released as Aquamarine

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ http://dmme.net/interview-with-jim-mccarty-yardbirds-pt2.html
  2. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=gQkyAQAAIAAJ&q=stairway+%22new+age%22+mccarty+cennamo&dq=stairway+%22new+age%22+mccarty+cennamo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjByd3b5LrQAhVJhlQKHbrFCkIQ6AEILTAD
  3. ↑ http://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/diner/2674/lcenn_bio.htm.tmp
  4. ↑ https://newworldmusic.com/uk/author/stairway/
  5. ↑ http://www.expose.org/index.php/articles/display/from-renaissance-to-illusion-a-profile-of-the-relf-mccarty-renaissance.html
  6. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/artist/1498380-Stairway-2
  7. ↑ https://www.newworldmusic.com/aus/stairway
  8. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/may/26/features.magazine97
  9. ↑ http://malcolmstern.com/music/
  10. ↑ http://www.jtl.us/nlightsweb/lib/reviews/mccarty.htm
  11. ↑ http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/stairway_f2
  12. ↑ http://www.goldminemag.com/article/yardbirds-keep-rollin-2016
  13. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/louiscennamo
  14. ↑ http://www.angelair.co.uk/?tcp_product=stairway-pearls-of-the-deep-best-of

External links

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