RACHEL RACHEL (feat. Dann Huff) – You Oughta Know By Now (1993), MP3+FLAC

As requested, here’s “You Oughta Know By Now“, the second album from American all-female band RACHEL RACHEL, some kind of a CCM answer to Heart / Vixen. With White Heart’s Billy Smiley again producing Rachel Rachel maybe it’s not too surprising that the band have so many AOR similarities to their all male counterparts too – add to that also White Heart / Giant top class guitarist Dann Huff and you have more edge than on previous Rachel Rachel album.

Being an all-girl rock band has brought Rachel Rachel a great deal of U.S. media attention but his album is far from being the pop-rock wimp out some expected – Heli Sterner’s crunchy guitar sound ensures the album stops only just short of hard rock while drummer Jenny Sparks propels the faster rockers with unerring drive. Sterner also perform some vocals but it’s Cheryl Jewel who sings most of the leads / writes most of the songs – and pretty good they are too.

The great ‘Dust To Diamonds’ wouldn’t been out of place into Heart’s ‘Brigade’, while ‘In Your Arms’ is pretty much Vixen early era – not to mention Huff’s hot solo. Then the terrific melodic pump of ‘Lay Down Your Head’ feels like a Giant song with female vocals.
Fans of female-fronted Melodic Rock / AOR with that late ’80s / early Nineties sound need to own RACHEL RACHEL’s “You Oughta Know By Now”.
Highly Recommended

01. Somebody To Love Me
02. Dust To Diamonds
03. You Oughta Know By Now
04. Only Heaven Knows
05. In Your Arms
06. You’ll Never Know
07. Lay Down Your Head
08. You Are Always There
09. You Comfort Me
10. Time (I Will Still Love You)

Brynn Beltran – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Cheryl Jewel – Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Sparky – Drums
Heli Sterner – Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals
Jennifer York – Bass
Additional Musicians:
Blair Masters – Keyboards and Percussion Programming
Billy Smiley – Acoustic & Octave Acoustic Guitars, Mandolin and Additional Electric Guitars
Dann Huff – Lead Electric Guitar on “In Your Arms” and first Guitar Solo on “Dust To Diamonds”
Mark Matheson – Hammond B-3 Organ on “You Oughta Know By Now” and “Lay Down Your Head”
Produced by: Billy Smiley

MP3 FLAC