MR

This guy doesn't SOUND like Perry, but to me he has that natural, "Born to sing" tenor sound. He is my second favorite vocalist ever, and is crystal clear (well, not so much with these crappy samples).

His name is Rikk Florian, and he sang with a Christian band called Whiteheart. They were big in the 80's and were somewhat successful in the early 90's.

Regardless of the genre, let me know what you think of his voice. (This is not religious propoganda) I think he is extremely talented. I wish I had better links to better songs, but this gives you an idea.

Full song, Meet You There:

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/meetyouthere.mp3

Clip: Even The Hardest Heart (not too good on the sound quality):

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/hrdheart.wav

Clip: Come One Come All:

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/comeall.wav

Clip: Honestly (better quality)

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/honestly.wav

Not bad at all-ERIC

I have all of their(7) albums, and a couple vidz I have transrerred to DVD

Yeah..they were a christian AOR band.... but if you ignore some of the lyrical content... they were just a great band...

Only released one Turkey..called "Redemption" where they tried to go a bit "grungey"

They still exist..although not sure if theres any recent material

heres the link to their site

http://www.whiteheart.com/

at one time, they were the biggest selling Christian rock act in the USA
Go check out "Tales Of Wonder" 1992

or

"Highlands" ..93

They did some good ballads... but also rocked out with the best of em!

McNeil wrote:I have all of their(7) albums, and a couple vidz I have transrerred to DVD

Yeah..they were a christian AOR band.... but if you ignore some of the lyrical content... they were just a great band...

The lyrical content is the best part of their music.

Don't get me wrong - I am a Christian (not perfect by any stretch, and not condescending to others, either), and I love the lyrics. I just didn't want to make this post about religion, but rather Rikk's voice.

conversationpc wrote:

McNeil wrote:I have all of their(7) albums, and a couple vidz I have transrerred to DVD

Yeah..they were a christian AOR band.... but if you ignore some of the lyrical content... they were just a great band...

The lyrical content is the best part of their music.

I didnt want to focus on the lyrical content..some will be alienated by it... but even a "non" christian will enjoy the music!!

I enjoyed those clips. The only thing that seperates christian rock from anything else is the lyrics. I listen to the christian station here in Houston occasionally and they play some really good stuff.

Does/Has anyone have/listend to the John Elefante project called Mastedon. He and his brother Dino, did two albums in the late late 80's and early 90's. They were both christian aor albums and the first album in particular is supposed to be absolutley stellar. If anyone has copies and could post some clips, I would be very grateful.

I have both of Elefante's Christian CDs. The guy can write and sing!

I used to have the Mastedon stuff, but that was years ago.

knox wrote:Don't get me wrong - I am a Christian (not perfect by any stretch, and not condescending to others, either), and I love the lyrics. I just didn't want to make this post about religion, but rather Rikk's voice.

No one is perfect....that's impossible. By who's definition? To be Christ like? Even he was striving at time's. We're all just people, making mistake's, making correction's ( if you learn by them) and striving forward. Don't think we're expected to be perfect. IMHO.

Amazing band! Don't forget that Dann Huff (of Giant fame and producer extraordinaire) was one of the founding members. Think he was only around for the first album or two if memory serves. Always loved this band. The "Freedom" album still gives me goosebumps from beginning to end.

Funny thing that Rick Florian did throughout his tenure with the band-he would change the spelling of his first name on every album. Hence Rikk, Riq, Ric, etc. Always got a kick out of that.

Good voice for sure, but its hard to not be distracted by the lyrics. I really do hate Christian rock, no matter how well its done. The idea of singing about God in a "hip" "I'm a cool dude" attitude is all too irreverant to me. I feel the same away about Jesus stickers on on the ass of everyone's car. Horribly innapproriate in my opinion.

Nice voice though, but not Perryesque in my opinion.

yeah, keep it secular, when will they ever get their heads out of their butts and embrace Darwin....

knox wrote:I have both of Elefante's Christian CDs. The guy can write and sing!

I used to have the Mastedon stuff, but that was years ago.

Elefante, of course, was the lead singer for Kansas for the "Vinyl Confessions" and "Drastic Measures" albums in the early 80s. Not the best era of the band but decent stuff. I've never heard his stuff with Mastedon but I have all his solo albums and especially love the first one, "Windows of Heaven" and "Defying Gravity". I'm not too keen on his second release, "Corridors", though. Anyway, he's a great singer and has done some great production work with his brother Dino Elefante. They produced several Petra albums.

That brings up another great singer, John Schlitt. That guy had some great pipes back in the day.

rap_still_sucks wrote:Good voice for sure, but its hard to not be distracted by the lyrics. I really do hate Christian rock, no matter how well its done. The idea of singing about God in a "hip" "I'm a cool dude" attitude is all too irreverant to me. I feel the same away about Jesus stickers on on the ass of everyone's car. Horribly innapproriate in my opinion.

Well, if you look at most Christian rock, it's apparent that most of them are not trying to be "hip" or "cool". There are some that are that way but, for the most part, they end up fading away into obscurity.

I agree with you about the Jesus stickers on the car bumpers, though. It's cliche and most of those people drive like maniacs anyway. Yeah, it makes me feel a whole lot better that you cut me off but have a Jesus fish on your car.

Marc S wrote:yeah, keep it secular, when will they ever get their heads out of their butts and embrace Darwin....

Embrace Darwin?

knox wrote:This guy doesn't SOUND like Perry, but to me he has that natural, "Born to sing" tenor sound. He is my second favorite vocalist ever, and is crystal clear (well, not so much with these crappy samples).

His name is Rikk Florian, and he sang with a Christian band called Whiteheart. They were big in the 80's and were somewhat successful in the early 90's.

Regardless of the genre, let me know what you think of his voice. (This is not religious propoganda) I think he is extremely talented. I wish I had better links to better songs, but this gives you an idea.

Full song, Meet You There:

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/meetyouthere.mp3

Clip: Even The Hardest Heart (not too good on the sound quality):

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/hrdheart.wav

Clip: Come One Come All:

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/comeall.wav

Clip: Honestly (better quality)

http://www.whiteheart.com/whclips/honestly.wav

He was an extremely experienced child molester too.

Huh?

A simple Google search came up with this:

This is the type of irresponisible half-truth and mis-direction of the facts that I established this apologetics essay for. I must confess that I am very angry over this statement! Whiteheart's lead singer Mark Gersmehl HAS NOT BEEN ARRESTED FOR CHILD MOLESTATION, as that statement above implies. When you make statements like that, you absolutely MUST be completely factual or face the possiblity of libel. It is true that in 1985, Scott Douglas, then the lead singer of Whiteheart, was arrested for child molestation. If you had stated that, I would have no problem. But you said "lead singer", making no attempt to qualify the statement correctly. A casual, uninformed reader would not be aware of the change in personnel in the group, and assume it is Mark!


It wasn't Rick who was accused, or even their other lead singer, Mark. It was a guy samed Scott Douglas.

conversationpc wrote:

knox wrote:I have both of Elefante's Christian CDs. The guy can write and sing!

I used to have the Mastedon stuff, but that was years ago.

Elefante, of course, was the lead singer for Kansas for the "Vinyl Confessions" and "Drastic Measures" albums in the early 80s. Not the best era of the band but decent stuff. I've never heard his stuff with Mastedon but I have all his solo albums and especially love the first one, "Windows of Heaven" and "Defying Gravity". I'm not too keen on his second release, "Corridors", though. Anyway, he's a great singer and has done some great production work with his brother Dino Elefante. They produced several Petra albums.

That brings up another great singer, John Schlitt. That guy had some great pipes back in the day.

Yes, John sang in Petra, also on my project, Project Damage Control, www.projectdamagecontrol.com .
We wrote our tunes for another singer, who was crippled in a motorcycle accident. John stepped in and sang well. Some people say that our song "Liar" was the best song that he has done. I don't know. BTW, John still has the pipes. He has more texture now, but he sounds more comfortable being tough than pure toned, if you catch my drift.

John is releasing a new rock record to the European market, where melodic rock sells.

knox wrote:Huh?

Quite right. Sorry about that. Rick was the bus driver, I remember. Rick is the one in real estate. John Schlitt is also in real estate now. Smiley is a producer. He worked with some friends of mine. He is a bit greedy for what he does, and really has no clout in the industry as far as I can see. It takes lots o money.

While we are on Whiteheart in the Journey threads, Giant3 is out, featuring Dan Huff, who is still a great guitar player.

Also, something is factual, is that members of Whiteheart and Mylon LeFevre's band joined with Louie Weaver (Petra) to form Viktor. Check them out at www.viktorband.com

low d wrote:

knox wrote:Huh?

Rick was convicted of it. That's why he left the band.

A simple Google search came up with this:

This is the type of irresponisible half-truth and mis-direction of the facts that I established this apologetics essay for. I must confess that I am very angry over this statement! Whiteheart's lead singer Mark Gersmehl HAS NOT BEEN ARRESTED FOR CHILD MOLESTATION, as that statement above implies. When you make statements like that, you absolutely MUST be completely factual or face the possiblity of libel. It is true that in 1985, Scott Douglas, then the lead singer of Whiteheart, was arrested for child molestation. If you had stated that, I would have no problem. But you said "lead singer", making no attempt to qualify the statement correctly. A casual, uninformed reader would not be aware of the change in personnel in the group, and assume it is Mark!


It wasn't Rick who was accused, or even their other lead singer, Mark. It was a guy samed Scott Douglas.

low d wrote:

knox wrote:Huh?

Rick was convicted of it. That's why he left the band.

It wasn't Rick...Here's what I found on an anti-Christian rock site...

In 1985 White Heart's lead singer, Scott Douglas, was arrested for child molestation! In 1986 Scott was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in a Tennessee prison!

knox wrote:

low d wrote:

knox wrote:Huh?

Rick was convicted of it. That's why he left the band.

A simple Google search came up with this:

This is the type of irresponisible half-truth and mis-direction of the facts that I established this apologetics essay for. I must confess that I am very angry over this statement! Whiteheart's lead singer Mark Gersmehl HAS NOT BEEN ARRESTED FOR CHILD MOLESTATION, as that statement above implies. When you make statements like that, you absolutely MUST be completely factual or face the possiblity of libel. It is true that in 1985, Scott Douglas, then the lead singer of Whiteheart, was arrested for child molestation. If you had stated that, I would have no problem. But you said "lead singer", making no attempt to qualify the statement correctly. A casual, uninformed reader would not be aware of the change in personnel in the group, and assume it is Mark!


It wasn't Rick who was accused, or even their other lead singer, Mark. It was a guy samed Scott Douglas.

Going even further, Mark wasn't the lead singer, but the keyboardist. White Heart had three lead singers since their inception, starting with Steve Green. He was replaced by the aforementioned, and then Rick Florian for the remainder of the band's career. Rick was not convicted of any crime, and remained with the band until they split after "Redemption".

Funny... It doesn't take much to get a false rumor started without researching the facts first.

Also, here's this bit from Whiteheart's official web site, in the FAQ section...

* exit Scott Douglas (sentenced to 15 years for sex related crimes)

I LOVED Whiteheart. Even the Hardest Heart was out when I was 15 I think. I remember watching the video on one of the Christian networks that played videos late at night. Haven't listened to them in forever...I agree, his voice is a little Perryesque

He has power as well. The man can belt those high notes out with force!

I used to be a Christian in my youth, so I grew up with a lot of CCM. As for Whiteheart, their best album by far was "Freedom," which featured future session musician greats Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy, and Chris McHugh. Nothing they did before or after compares.

Here's a few other great CCM vocalists:

Tommy Funderburk
Russ Taff
Ron Hemby