Thursday, November 20, 2014

VAN STEPHENSON - China Girl (1981)

VAN STEPHENSON - China Girl (1981) front
Re-posted as requested

The rare and hard to find first album by VAN STEPHENSON...
Released through the small label Handshake Records in 1981, "China Girl" was Stephenson's entry into the music business as solo artist.
At the time Van was writing hit songs for artists from the Nashville scene (e.g. Restless Heart) and the songwriting for "China Girl" follow these musical roots.
Originally songwriters becoming producers, Bob Montgomery & Jeff Silbar provided to "China Girl" a warm, melodic Mid-WestCoast sound, with some late '70s / early '80s AOR feel.

There's many gems here such as the radio-friendly "Looks Like A Loser", the climatic "Looks Like A Loser", the awesome title track (with some Eagles on it), the dynamic "Lion In The Night" or the WestCoast midtempo "I Would If I Could".
Van Stephenson's voice is like an elegant lady velvet dress, just check his incredible performance on the exquisitely orchestrated "New York, Hold Her Tight". It still gives me chills on my spine after dozens of listenings.

VAN STEPHENSON - China Girl (1981) back cover

Absurdly never pressed on CD, had to be the Asians who did it last year (2013), but I still haven't managed to get a copy.
Anyway, for the moment I am happy with this nicely done vinyl rip, cleaned and de-noised from scratches.
Delicious.


1. You′ve Got A Good Love Coming
2. Looks Like A Loser
3. Seeing Is Believing
4. China Girl
5. Weekend Warrior
6. I Would If I Could
7. Tonight The Love's On Me
8. Hotter In The Night
9. New York, Hold Her Tight
10. Lion In The Night

Van Stephenson: Lead & Backing Vocals, Guitar
Wayne Perkins, Kenny Mims: Guitars
Larry Baxton: Bass
Mike Hanna: Keyboards
Shane Keister: Synthesizers
Joe English: Drums
Bob Montgomery: Wind Chimes, Production




VAN STEPHENSON - China Girl (1981)
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5 Comments:

T.P said...

I've gotten my hands on this excellent record since a long time, directly from your blog.

Besides your mentioned New York, Hold Her Tight which is a ballad to die for, indeed, some other favourites of mine are Weekend Warrior, Lion In The Night and Tonight The Love's On Me. Those are songs I don't wanna miss in my collection, since they've got that certain something.

Bye for now,
Thomas

Anonymous said...

Thanks!!
I hope you will upload your next releases on this server, becouse the site Upload.net is blocked from my country.

Alberto said...

Hi Camelblue:

Thank you so much :) I'm right now giving a listening and... I agree with you, DELICIOUS.

donkeymusic said...

The link is dead now....

Anonymous said...

link is dead please use another server like zippyshare or depositfiles. thanks