【Pls look at the top comment first】The apple is bitten on the CD cover, which is the icon of Ransom, an amazing band from California which is rarely mentioned. In the late 1990s, the band was formed quietly, which even used to be confused with another band of the same name Ransom. After hearing Ransom's song, aor fans will be impressed by this bitten apple.

There came out several bands named Ransom in melodic rock industry. What we should pay attention to is that this California-based Ransom should be distinguished from the early 1990s Christian rock band Ransom fronted by a lady. For whoever haven't heard Ransom yet, just have a try. This album will never be disappointing.

Ransom was formed by two music talents, Tommy Girvin and Don Cromwell, both of who were the music veterans before Ransom. This is a great partnership though the collaboration was not in succession in the past decades. But one thing can be sure that Ransom's music works have won numerous warm responses. The formation of Ransom had already passed the final glorious years of melodic rock while alternative rock started to boom since then. However, during the mid to late 1990s, there still came out many great aor gems which should shine brightly if they have been recalled today. Many attractive points make this album worth listening as a first-class 1990s aor release.

The partnership between Ransom's two founders was from their past experiences. Before Ransom was formed, both Tommy Girvin and Don Cromwell played behind rock legend Eddie Money for many years. Based on their high level as the studio and tour performers, they have skilled personal abilities to create their own aor project and made a difference on creation and performance.

Tommy Girvin is the lead vocalist and the guitarist of Ransom, whose music career can be dated back to the mid 1980s. He originally played in a pop rock band Smile in 1985 as the guitarist. Since 1986, Girvin started to play with Eddie Money on guitars. In his careers, he mainly plays as a guitarist and a songwriter. Ransom is his special project where he formally perfomed as a lead singer.

In the 1980s, Don Cromwell played with music legend Air Supply as a tour bass player, and later he stared to play with Eddie Money on touring and recording. In Eddie Money's 1991 album "Right Here", both Don Cromwell and Tommy Girvin played together on bass and guitars. From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, Cromwell collaborated with his music friend Chris Barr on lots of creations and demo recordings. In 2022, all his demos with Chris Barr were released in an album with double CDs called "A Story Unfolds".

The album "Trouble In Paradise (1997)" featured Tommy Girvin and Don Cromwell as the major creators and the producers. Besides, they invited the guest musician Ron Wikso on drums who once played in Greg Rolie's band The Storm and Tamara Champlin's solo album. Some other musicians also consisted of Ransom's creative and recording team. Musically, this album is filled with big surprises one by one.

When Tommy Girvin started to sing in Ransom, almost nobody can resist the charms from his voice, because his voice reminds lots of people of the glorious years of Bryan Adams. Not only his voice feature, but also Ransom's music taste, truly sound in vein of the perfect works of Bryan Adams. I think he perfectly combined Bryan Adams with Don Henley, making people's delicate ears get lost in.

This album was opened by a ballad "Bring It On Home". When its music comes in, who can resist the great tunes from such a superb creation which blows souls away? The guitar works are brilliant. With the soul-stirring voice of Tommy Girvin, Ransom's ballads from the album can truly hit everybody in the heart such as the opening track, this song "Middle Of The Night " and the 11th track "Let Tonight Be The Night We Remember".

"Trouble In Paradise" featured most of inspiration taken from 1980s and early 1990s aor gems, making it sound close to Bryan Adams's 1980s epic albums "Reckless" & "Into The Fire" and Eddie Money's perfect releases "Right Here" and "Can'T Hold Back".

On the whole, "Trouble In Paradise" is a very decent pure aor release, very radio-friendly. In 1998, the album was reissued in Japan plus one bonus track. Their second album was released in 2010, entitled "Better Days", which carried more modern hard/melodic rock works and some acoustic sounds. Girvin's voice didn't change much, but musically they made some changes.

In 2012, Ransom's compilation was released by Yesterrock, which combined two CDs together, a perfect choice for fans to review all their songs. I'm not sure if the coming out of Ransom's compilation means that the band or the two founders' collaboration comes to the end, but both of them are still active on social media platform facebook. The luckiest one
is whoever owns their compilation at hand.
#MelodicRock #aor #Ransom #TommyGirvin #DonCromwell

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