A STORM IS
BREWING…
KEVIN CHALFANT
BRINGS HIS ROCK SHOW TO VALPO…
by Tom Lounges
Some rock singers are
instantly recognizable in a visual sense. Others are equally indelible,
but only when they open their mouths and ply their talent to one’s
eardrum.
Kevin Chalfant,
a native of Streeter, Illinois is the latter. Though he has been
awarded an BMI award for co-writing and singing on one of the most
frequently aired rock radio hits of 1992 and 1993 (“I’ve Got A Lot To
Learn About Love” by The Storm), Chalfant can walk into a
supermarket and go unnoticed, but were he to belt out a song in the
produce aisle, pandemonium would surely follow.
Some would recognize
him as the Top 40 rock ‘n’ roll throat behind the early power rock ‘80s
hits by the group 707. Others would peg him as the voice which drove
‘90s melodic rockers The Storm into the national Top 10. The more
serious music fans might even be able to tag Chalfant as the voice of
the legendary Alan Parsons Project during it’s latter years.
Music from all those
ventures, plus an assortment numbers that he has sang under the flag of
various other groups and projects –– such as Two Fires and Jim
Peterik’s World Stage –– will be performed when Chalfant takes the
stage at Valparaiso’s Chicago Street Theatre. Chalfant hints that
Peterik may even show up to duet with him on their song, “Sum Of Our
Hearts,” from the 9/11 benefit album, The Day America Cried.
“When they told me
Chicago Street Theatre was a a quaint and intimate 140 seat community
theatre, I was really excited about playing there,” he said. “The show
will be both acoustic and electric. I promise everyone is going to have
a really good time!”
Chalfant has not
performed live in Northwest Indiana in a decade, since The Storm played
with Peter Frampton at Star Plaza Theatre. “I am really excited to be
doing this show and coming back to the region,” he said.
Chalfant formed The
Storm in 1990 with former Journey members Ross Valory (bass),
Gregg Rolie (keys) and Steve Smith (drums). “Journey was on
what seemed an eternal hiatus at the time,” explained the singer on how
he wound up in such talented company.
Chalfant had Valory
had been dabbling in the studio with a side band during the waning
Journey years called, The View. The Storm started brewing when
after Journey called it a day in 1989.
“Journey’s manager
Herbie Herbert had a box seat for San Francisco 49er football games and
I started with Ross every week to the games and found myself sitting
next to Gregg Rolie.” said Chalfant. “Everybody kept hinting around
that we should start writing some songs together. We kept saying we
would get together, but we never seemed to get around to it. One day
Gregg’s brother Steve Rolie had flown up from Los Angeles to join us for
a 49ers vs. The Rams game and made the crack that we should call the
band The Procrastinators. Within two days Gregg and I were writing
songs started working on what would be the first Storm album.”
That self-titled
album, The Storm, was released by Interscope Records and
went to the number three slot on the Billboard Album Chart.
Its first single,
“I’ve Got A Lot To Learn About Love”, hit the national Top 10 and
was thought to be a new Journey song.
“Ross, Gregg and
Steve just went in the studio and picked up where they left off, so it
would naturally have that Journey sound, because half of Journey was
playing on it,” laughed Chalfant.
“Steve Perry and
myself have a very similar style and sound and our guitarist Josh
Ramos likewise had a similar style of playing as [Journey’s] Neal
Schon.”
When it came time to
release the second Storm album in 1993, the group discovered that
Interscope had gotten entrenched in the burgeoning rap scene.
“They told us they
were going to sit on the album for a while and we knew that was the kiss
of death, so we negotiated our way out of Interscope,” said Chalfant.
Their sophomore
effort, The Eye Of The Storm, did not get released until
1996 and by then the commercial winds powering The Storm had died out.
Journey soon after reunited, leaving Ramos and Chalfant suddenly back on
their own again.
Chalfant relocated
back to his native Illinois and took a couple of years off. He has
been back in action for three years now.
He is busy working on
a career retrospective DVD project, and has kept busy recording an album
of traditional gospel songs titled, Back To Square One,
from which proceeds benefit former Chicago Bear, Jerry Stillman.
A Christmas CD
featuring fans caroling along with Chalfant and his band was wrapped up
this past holiday season.
Chalfant is thrilled
that the music he recorded with 707 and The Storm are currently in the
process of being re-released and will soon be available on his web site
(www.cliquerecords.com),
along with his European-distributed Two Fires recordings and his most
recent pair of specialty CDs.
Kevin Chalfant & The
Storm perform at Chicago
Street Theatre in
Valparaiso on April 30
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