
In May, Whitesnake will release it's latest album, THE PURPLE ALBUM; a collection of songs that vocalist David Coverdale first recorded with Deep Purple back in the early 1970's. When Coverdale joined Deep Purple in 1972, Purple were alrerady one of the worlds premier bands, and with Coverdale (who joined with new bassist Glenn Hughes) they recorded three now classic albums, the best of those was 1974's BURN.
Back in the early 1980's I was at my friend Kevin's house and for some reason we put on one of his brother's albums which was Deep Purple's BURN. The first song, the title track blew my mind. It was hard, loud and aggresive with soaring vocals and a classical feel that just never let go of my musical heart!
The funny part of that story is that I knew of Deep Purple from my sisters 45 collection where she had Deep Purple's earliest works; Hush and Kentucky Woman. Somehow I missed their entire 'classic' line-up led by singer Ian Gillian and produced classics like 'Smoke on the Water' and 'Space Trucking'.
Following an aborted project with former Purple guitarist Richie Blackmore, Coverdale realized he wanted to not only revisit his Purple past but re-record these songs for a new, hungry audience. Joining Coverdale in Whitesnake is longtime drummer Tommy Aldrich, guitarists Reb Beacjh and Joel Hoekstra and Michael Devin and a world tour is set for 2015!
Look for THE PURPLE ALBUM to be released on May on Frontier records.