Artist: Lawrence Falcomer, Album: Q107 Homegrown Vol.15, Song: The Alien Song

As mentioned in some earlier blogs, homegrown radio contests were effective vehicles for musicians and labels alike, to harvest local talent and develop them in to national hit making machines.  In Toronto, Q107 was a station that focused on hard rock development and for a great many years they launched the careers of some big time acts like Honeymoon Suite, The Partland Brothers and Wild T & The Spirit.  The station regularly released a compilation album featuring the contestants and supported the contest by playing the music.  Lawrence Falcomer was a guitarist from Toronto who had an instrumental called, The Alien Song, on 1994's edition of the Q107 Homegrown Contest.  He had already done some session work for bands like Frozen Ghost and Triumph before being featured on the contest.  I'm not sure if he actually won this, but the track is outstanding.  To put his music in context.  Heavy Metal guitarists were already stepping out from the shadows of their lead singers and releasing their own solo albums.  During the eighties, a guy by the name of Yngwie Malmsteen became known for this.  Following that, guys like Steve Vai of Whitesnake and David Lee Roth fame, Joe Satriani ("Crush Of Love") and Impellitteri ("Somewhere Over The Rainbow") followed.  While being a guitarist might have been a prerequisite for really appreciating the talents of Yngwie.  Joe Satriani started releasing instrumentals that appealed to a broader metal listening audience.  This track by Lawrence Falcomer falls into that category.  Lawrence works in a band called Sonic X as well.  You can follow his work at http://www.myspace.com/lawrencefalcomer and at http://www.myspace.com/thesonicx.  Unfortunately, I don't think there is a recording available of this song other than the Q107 Homegrown Vol.15 release.  At the time of this blog, I couldn't find any copies available.  You can hear The Alien Song on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuDtXHzeW_U).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!