NIGHT TRAIN CALLING (EP)

Captain Beyond reformed in 1997/1998 with founding members Larry Reinhardt and Bobby Caldwell. Immediately they hit the club/bar circuit and were doing very well for themselves. In 1999 they were invited to the legendary Swedish Rock Festival. After playing in Europe for a little while they returned to the states to record this four song EP. The EP is mostly intelligently played hard rock with some AOR and Progressive elements added for safe measure. After its release however it became increasingly difficult for Captain Beyond to find a respectable record label (as well as places to play) and they soon broke up around 2003.

Now for the contents:

Gotta Move - is a well played hard rock tune. Keyboardist Dan Frye opens up the song and drummer Bobby Caldwell sings lead and Larry gives us some great guitaring as always. Although its mostly hard rock, there are very slight progressive elements throughout this song, as well as the others.

Be as You Were - is another above average hard rock song. Larry is amazing on this track and it only gets better with the next two songs. Bobby is singing lead again. Dan Frye hits us with a great keyboard solo about midway through.

Don't Cry Over Me - is where lead vocalist Jimmy Interval makes his debut. Captain Beyond struck gold with this guy, he's kind of like a cross between Rod Evans and Willy Daffern but more melodic. This song is very AORish and would've made a great hit. Great keyboarding and guitaring throughout, remember people this is Captain Beyond. No matter what genre of rock they play, its always guaranteed to be excellent!

Night Train Calling (Crystal Clear) - is the closing number to the EP and is also the longest song. Bobby is back to singing lead. Larry again provides powerful licks and Dan Frye proves he's a very competent player.

And just so I don't leave him out. Bass player Jeff "the Count" Artabasy is not quite as good as Lee Dorman but he's got a great style that easily fits with Captain Beyond .

I can only give this EP 3 stars because it's not really prog, just has some elements of it. I also can't give it anything higher because its damn near impossible to find this EP. Although if you do search youtube.com you should be able to find videos for all four songs.

So again 3 stars for intelligent hard rock from our favorite rockers from the cosmos!