Seattle, Washington. Stolen Ogre is quite simply one of the best bands I have heard in a long time. Their debut album Road To Jericho (Shadowhawk Records) has been one of my favorites of the year. The band consists of the outstanding singer/songwriter Pamela Tobiason, keyboardist Michael McMorrow, guitarist David Simpson, the Reverend Scott “Junior” Adams on sax and vocals, bassist Marc Willett and drummer Rick Boice.

The band has strong connections with Blues Traveler. In fact, McMorrow and Blues Traveler’s. Brendan Hill formed Stolen Ogre. after they met on the HORDE tour.

Eventually Hill’s duties with Blues Traveler would lead him away from Stolen Ogre (although he appears on their album.) Much like Fiddleworm,Stolen Ogre plays concise and polished music that fuses elements from various genres into finely honed songs. They are currently working on their follow-up album, but if you haven’t heard Road to Jericho, I urge you to investigate. Tobiason has a great voice and again there’s not a bad track among the album’s ten. This is tomorrow’s classic rock. Tracks like “Wheat” “Lay Me Down” are truly radio friendly while “Grind” shows the grittier side of the band.

Stolen Ogre's Jericho ~ 3/05

Bruce Von Stiers

There are a lot of talented rock musicians in the Pacific Northwest . Every once in a while, a group of these musicians will come together to form a band. That is what happened with the band Stolen Ogre. The members had been around for a while and then decided to play together. One of the musicians in Stolen Ogre was a founding member of Blues Traveler. Stolen Ogre recorded an album last year that is extraordinary. The title of this album is Road To Jericho. It was released on the Shadowhawk Records label.

Road To Jericho has 10 tracks and a run time of 47 minutes.

Pamela Tobiason is the lead vocalist for Stolen Ogre. You can feel how she takes charge of the music from the first verse of Lay Me Down. It is the first track of the album. Pamela has a Janis Joplin quality to her voice, only a lot smoother. The music on the song is very intricate. There is cool saxophone, tough Southern Rock styled guitar riffs and a ton of other background sounds to give Pamela a great foundation for her vocals.

Confusion is the second track. Pamela comes across a bit like Grace Slick in this song. The song is slower paced but kicks in a really hot sax fronted bridge.

The third track is Jericho . This is an anthem that invokes Biblical images of retribution and redemption. That is amplified with lyrics like “something says forgive them for they know not what they do.” But she'll take their lives in place of hers and lay gold across their eyes. She doesn't want to die where she is at. The song again has excellent music providing Pamela a great background for her vocals.

The music on the album has a touch of Blues Traveler in it. That might be because, as I mentioned earlier, one of the founding members of Stolen Ogre was also a founding member of Blues Traveler. That musician is drummer Brendan Hill. He met and jammed with keyboardist and songwriter Michael McMorrow during the 1996 H.O.R.D.E. festival. This gave birth to the band now known as Stolen Ogre.

The band soon accumulated members and began playing in and around Seattle . David Simpson joined the band as a guitarist and The Reverend Scott “Junior” Adams came on board as the resident sax player. Steve Manning joined as the bassist and the group chose Pamela Tobiason to front the vocals for them.

Sister Moon has an intro of Pamela on the phone, leaving a message on someone's machine. This is a song in which Pamela sounds a bit like Janis Joplin. The song has some funky organ and guitar.

Wheat is a song that has decent acoustic guitar and a mixture of other great instruments. In fact, there isn't a song on the album that doesn't have fantastic music on it. Pamela's vocals are greatly complemented by the background music.

Three is an anthem like song with a swaying beat. A Dozen A Day has some fantastic guitar, especially in the middle of the song.

Other songs on the album are Grind, Leave Me Alone and Icing. Grind has sax bits mixed in with the guitars and drums that make this sound somewhat like a Blues Traveler. Of course, Pamela's vocals are of a different range than John Popper's. There is also some synth music in Grind that is reminiscent of Three Dog Night.

All of the lyrics on the album were written by Pamela. The music was written by various people, mainly Michael McMorrow.

The last song on the album, Icing, has a combination of styles that reach back through the last three decades of rock music.

If you are a fan of Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews or music of similar styles, you will love Stolen Ogre. They have an extraordinary lead singer in Pamela Tobiason. Their music has a broad mix of guitar, saxophone, drums and bass that combined make for fantastic sounding songs.

Road To Jericho is available at TowerRecords.com and through CD Baby.