Angelica

Angelica is a Canadian hard rock/christian rock band led by guitarist Dennis Cameron that released 4 albums during the period 1989 - 1992. Their albums are as follows:

“If there’s anything that I could tell kids that might be watching or that might listen to the records is that–It’s just how God has worked in my life. God has really only worked in my life in times that I’ve been brought to a point in my life where I had to just give everything up. Especially in a position where I didn’t know what I was going to do next, I just had to walk in faith–and trust in Him. Those were the times that God really came through. Being in a Christian rock band isn’t the fame and the glory that it might seen to be to some people because we get media attention. This is the fun part of it. This happens maybe two hours out of the whole year, and the rest of the year it’s a real warfare. Anytime you step out to do something for the Lord you can really get pounded on, by the enemy or just by the world–because it’s not as easily accepted. If it’s one thing I could tell kids it’s just hang in there; don’t forsake or compromise your faith or your beliefs for the world or for anything. In a troubled time, knowing that I’ve gone through them–and I go through them almost weekly–just trust in the Lord. He’ll pull you through it. He did for me. ~Dennis Cameron”

Here are the personal thoughts of Dennis Cameron about “Angelica”:

“Angelica started as a vision that I had for an ideal band full of believer musicians. The experience making the first album was to be the “Awakening” for me both as a musician and as a professional. Here’s a lesson that I hope any readers can learn from.

The first Angelica album was recorded in Costa Mesa, California with the starting line-up of: Andy Lyon, Scott Ernest, Bob Pallen and myself. The finishing line-up for the album was a little different. . . While in the pre-production stage of making the first album, Andy Lyon, the vocalist (more likely from a lack of experience on all our parts) chose to view the the opportunity to prepare for recording with less enthusiasm than the rest of the band. The result being that after a couple of days of having Ken Tamplin push him in his performance (as Ken was hired to produce the vocals on the album) that the singer “burned out”.

At this point, (as humbling as it is to say) we were in need of a singer to salvage the (what was now being refered to as the Dennis Cameron) project. We now needed to find someone to finish out the album. Ken had suggested two replacements, Bob Carlisle or Rob Rock. Having once been a proud owner and fan of the Driver album (Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge, Tony MacAlpine and Rob Rock) Rob was the easy pick of the two to best suite the music style. At the time of recording, Rob was in the process of regrouping a new version of Driver and was rehearsing and recording with them as well as doing the session work for Angelica. What a trooper he was! I can remember Rob coming to the sessions with this big red swollen throat saying that he had just come from Driver rehearsals and that he was pumped and ready. Not withholding, Rob would assume his best Iron Maiden pose in the vocal booth and trek on with our sessions.

Rob’s voice was in a higher range than Andy’s, which meant that some of the vocal melodies had to be reworked to fit his voice. For example, the original version of “Shine On Me” melody started on a major 3rd, but was transposed to the 5th for Rob. We finished the album a couple of weeks late due to all the mayhem and I returned home (Ontario, Canada) wondering how I was going to continue with this band under these circumstances.”

Albums

 * Angelica (1989)
 * Walkin' In Faith (1990)
 * Rock, Stock & Barrel (1991)
 * Time Is All It Takes (1992)