John Wesley - Prog Related/Crossover?

I'd like to suggest John Wesley (Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist) for Crossover/prog related.




Bio:
John Wesley (born 1962) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the early 80's, when he formed a band called Autodrive. A year after in 1984, John Wesley left Autodrive to pursue a solo career. He soon became the opening act for Marillion, playing for seven consecutive tour legs, mostly in The US, but also in select areas of Europe. In 1994, he released his first Solo album, "Under A Red And White Sky", to very little critical acclaim. One year later he released "The Closing Of The Pale Blue Eyes", which also received very little media attention. In 1997, he released another solo album called "The Emperor Falls", which featured Steve Hogarth (Marillion, 1988 - Present) as a guest vocalist.

In 1998, he began touring as an opening act for Lynryd Skynyrd and Peter Frampton. From 1999 - 2001, he participated in extensive world tours with Ex-Marillion singer FISH. In 2001, he co-wrote FISH's album "Fellini Days". Shortly after this, he released his 2001 solo album "Chasing Monsters", which received more media attention than most of his other solo releases.

More recently, John Wesley has toured as a backing guitarist and vocalist with PORCUPINE TREE, on the IN ABSENTIA, DEADWING and FEAR OF A BLANK PLANET tours. After the DEADWING tour in 2005, he released his fifth and most recent solo album, SHIVER. This album was mixed by STEVEN WILSON (PORCUPINE TREE), also included a guitar solo from Marillion's STEVE ROTHERY and has recieved more critical acclaim than any of his other solo releases.

On the 24th of August, 2007, John announced through his MySpace page that he would be making all of his solo albums available for Free, Legal download through his official site.

John Wesley has most recently performed as an opening act for Marillion at MARILLION WEEKEND: Montreal in 2009, and with Porcupine Tree on their recent tourdates.

Official Site: http://www.john-wesley.com/


Why this person should be included on ProgArchives:


Prog Related is the category that groups bands and artists that:

- Without being 100% Prog, received clear MUSICAL influence of this genre

- Blend characteristics of Progressive Rock with mainstream elements creating a final product that despite not being part of the genre is evident that are close to Prog.

Sound samples:

MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/johnwesleymusic

(His myspace has about ten of his tracks for streaming, I think)




Thanks!

-Joel

I'm also willing to post reviews of decent length for his albums if he is accepted, and I'll do those quite quickly.


-Joel

^ he's on the Crossover evaluations list Joel.

This list is very long and it will take us a long time to clear it all, so please be patient.

Thanks for the suggestion, I've been thinking about all the PT members side/solo projects for a while now, Wesley is the most promising from a Prog perspective.

sure - if you've the time to waste - much better to prepare it after he's been approved then your time would not have been spent in vain if rejected.

I will also do reviews for his works of good length.

Thanks a million Windhawk - I'll start reviewing over the next few days.

how the hell was "Thanksgiving Day" a good example of  his alleged progginess? If Toby Keith wrote/sang that exact same song, it would have never been anywhere near ProgArchives

It's a fair point joel, no need to shout. ;-) Typically when a sample is included in a post, it's for the purpose of showing that the artist belongs here, not just so we can hear notes coming out of his guitar, so you can imagine why some of us would be surprised when it's that.

But he was approved by crossover team, so what was the reason ?

Also, if you really feel he should be moved, why didn't you bring it up... Oh, I don't know, before he had been added to the site under crossover?