In the night I cry - to the Lady Of The Valley... - It's 1987 and a smashing tune accompanied by a cute vocalist's melancholic voice traps a young Hard Rock fan's analog Hi-Fi stereo. White Lion, I remember, really achieved a fair amount of status and recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. Still, the quartet's quality surely was of higher evolution - damn the early 90s' Grunge/Alt-Metal fashion that took charge of the U.S. (mainly) M&M - Music an' Media - shit goin' on status... In the end of 2004, the cute frontman is still present, still capable of settling down in digital (now) format. Hey, Mike, whatcha gonna do this time?
To chat on Mike Tramp's vocal abilities/vibe or White Lion's class/contribution to what today is being referred to as the Glam Rock/Metal scene of the 80s would be fairly needless. Denmark's child, New York raised, the other-half of the inseparable Bratta/Tramp W.L. duo carried on in the 90s at the modern (then) Freak Of Nature camp, to deliver 2 ½ albums of elevated Hard/New Rock appropriate for driving your car on a wet Monday's morning (just before traffic shit bursts out) but not a dime comparable to the open-colored king of animals' treasure. But, Mike won't quit! 1998's Capricorn shows the lover boy's cherished side (recorded at the love mourn pioneer David Coverdale's studio) and definitely 2002's Recovering The Wasted Years pointed the (middle?) finger to the same stripped direction. Europe (weird, huh?) loved that and More To Life Than This just added taste (along with a series of full-energy shows all over the Old Continent). It was after that time that Mike dusts-off archives and decides to bring out all the outtakes deserving a better... a better... a better 'whatever', should I quote. It's the fan's decision to see where he can stick in this CD, precondition-ed with the artist's relativeness (or else will fail - we're not talkin' 'bout an average band's latest CD, songs composed three months ago...).
For everyone familiar to Tramp's CV, Songs I left Behind features a set of songs that simply - in my ears - just didn't fit in his solo efforts because you cannot have an endlessly-tracked-album displayed on your CD stereo. I mean, no way are they better or worse than tunes that DID make it up. Of course, there should be no mood or track succession as the album carries on, which is unarguably fair since we're talkin' 'bout outtakes, a span of 12 years' ideas gathered here in average production but with the vibe of Mike Tramp present all over the place. Everyone keen on the vocalist's after-White Lion deeds will smile sensefully, as Tramp-wise melodies are dominant and prove what a credit this man still deserves in the Ocean of endless average releases in today's Music (Super) Market. Listening back to them I realized that this material was still better than a lot of the albums that are being released today and also felt that I had to get these out of the way before I could start working on new material, Tramp commented. You got a point, man...
I know what you're all wondering: Any White Lion similarities?... Tramp surely was a unit back then in New York's worthy outfit, so some aura is here. But don't take that, apart from some tunes' origin dating back to 1992, as a given for Songs I Left Behind. 'Cause Mike Tramp did that, HE is who we're chattin' 'bout  - and HE's the one who's offering us this compilation of outtakes... In a - needless to say - true Tramp way.