The Kirk Pasich Project, led by visionary Blue Élan Records co-founder and producer Kirk Pasich, has released their 21-song concept album/rock opera, Radio: Alone in the Night. The album is available both digitally and as a two-record vinyl set.
A meticulously conceived and wonderfully entertaining “covers and concept” album, Radio: Alone in the Night will flood listeners’ senses with warm nostalgia as they lose themselves in the compelling story of two modern-day minstrels and one-time lovers who ventured apart but now find themselves in the same town. Over the course of one night, they sit in the separate hotel rooms and listen as a radio deejay they once listened to, now working at an oldies station, plays records that magically bring their story to life.
Click here to listen to Radio: Alone in the Night
“I was excited to do an album of great covers, but I felt like it needed a unifying theme,” Pasich explains. “Then one night I woke up with this story in my head about two singers – they loved each other, but they loved their music more and went on their own journeys. Years later, they’re listening to these songs on the radio. They start calling in to the station to make requests – it’s like they’re singing to each other through each song.”
In addition to conceiving the concept and story, Pasich also curated and sequenced the songs, and his eclectic tastes and encyclopedic musical sense are on widescreen display on Radio: Alone in the Night, which brims with irresistible earworms like the first single, “Yummy/Sugar/Chewy,” a delightful three-way mashup of two Ohio Express corkers (“Yummy Yummy Yummy” and “Chewy Chewy”) and the Archies’ No. 1 chestnut, “Sugar, Sugar,” on which actress and singer Scout Durwood serves up extra helpings of ear candy fun.
The second single, “Reflections of My Life” is a rapturous take on the elegiac 1970s hit by the Scottish band the Marmalade, powerfully rendered by singers Scott Terry (leader of the band Red Wanting Blue) and Holly Montgomery (known for her work with Mustangs of the West).
The album’s main singing stars, Bryan Stephens and Ginny Luke, shine spectacularly. Stephens, a versatile performer who has shared stages with everyone from John Mayer to Van Halen, lights up tracks like “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” (a chart smash by England Dan and John Ford Cooley), “Among the Yesterdays” (a little-known Burton Cummings cut from the 1978 film, California Dreaming) and his shivers-inducing reading of the classic “Stand by Your Man.”
Luke, a classically trained violinist and singer who has performed with Meat Loaf, Snoop Dog, Jude Cole, and the Black Eyed Peas, among others, wraps her impeccable pipes around such cuts as Charlie Dore’s memorable ode to radio deejays, “Pilot of the Airwaves,” as well as the power-packed “Nights Are Forever Without You” (the record’s third single, this one, too, was made famous by England Dan and John Ford Cooley).
The album’s sole original, “Another Day,” is a true standout. Written by album producer and six-time Grammy nominee Dave Darling, it’s a sumptuous, country-flavored anthem on which Stephens and Luke channel the innermost feelings of the story’s star-crossed lovers. “I asked Dave if he could write an original that could fit the story, and he really came through,” Pasich says. “Bryan and Ginny captured the melancholic idea of ‘If we only had another chance’ so beautifully. It’s one of my favorite songs on the record.”
Among the other talents who contributed to Radio: Alone in the Night are Darling’s Grammy-nominated nephew, engineer/mixer Zackary Darling; producer and guitarist Zachary Ross; and singer Bernie Barlow.
Radio: Alone in the Night is the third album released by the Kirk Pasich Project. In 2022, the entity debuted with Scout Durwood’s EP, One Woman Army, a fun and frisky bend of modern pop and classic rock, and a year later came A Scout Durwood Christmas, a rollicking collection of covers and originals that has been hailed as a modern holiday gem.
A true music enthusiast, Pasich functions much like the legendary engineer and producer Alan Parsons, who, along with lyricist and singer Eric Woolfson, formed the hit-making Alan Parsons Project back in the ‘70s. “They assembled all these amazing singers and players on their albums, though Alan didn’t do any lead vocals or play most of the instruments.” Pasich explains. “I’ve taken that approach of bringing so many amazing talents together and seeing them perform unbelievable songs. Not many people get this chance, and I wanted to make the most of it.”