New Ken Tamplin Box Set

It looks like Girder is taking pre-orders for a 4 disc (66 song) retrospective of Ken Tamplin music titled "Stand Up & Shout".  It appears to appropriately include songs from both the band Shout and Ken's solo career.  I think that the last cd contains mostly (or possibly all) cover songs that Ken recorded in recent years (likely in an effort to promote his Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy).

It is on sale right now for $29.99 as a pre-order (regularly looks like it will be $34.99... however I suspect they probably won't sell all the copies and will discount it in a year like they have with other reissues/compilations).

You can check it out at this link below.

Girder Music-Ken Tamplin Box Set

I want to get it but I am apprehensive.  Are the new songs actually new, or are they just cover tunes that he has done for his vocal academy?  If they are new Tamplin songs with a gospel message, then I would get this just for those tracks.

This will be a hard pass for me.

I already picked up a ton of the Shout & Tamplin reissues put out by Girder recently, so this doesn't look worth it to me.

One whole disc appears to be mainstream cover tunes.

AtomicFan wrote:

This will be a hard pass for me.

I already picked up a ton of the Shout & Tamplin reissues put out by Girder recently, so this doesn't look worth it to me.

One whole disc appears to be mainstream cover tunes.

Yeah, I'm almost certain that is what the 4th disc is myself (although at least one or two of the titles are unrecognizable to me).

alldatndensum wrote:

I want to get it but I am apprehensive.  Are the new songs actually new, or are they just cover tunes that he has done for his vocal academy?  If they are new Tamplin songs with a gospel message, then I would get this just for those tracks.

I suspect they are straight secular covers... but don't know for certain.

This thread got me wanting to go back and listen to some of the stuff I already have of him. Man, what a great voice.

This week I listened to:
Magdallan "Big Bang" - what a great album
Shout "Shout Back" - I don't understand why there is a lot of negativity towards this album, I love it
Ken Tamplin "Soul Survivor"
Tamplin "In The Witness Box"

Also, another point about the box set, those covers are most likely not band recordings, but instead are simply him singing to accompaniment tracks...which I in no way will pay for.

Oh yeah, I really like Shout Back as well.  I think people expected it to be a clone of the first two Shout albums or something like that.  From his solo stuff only have three of them, In The Witness Box, Tamplin and that first one "Tamplin & Friends".  I used to have another earlier solo album, but I seem to have lost it somewhere

Shout Back had some good tunes.  However, it was too ballad heavy.  Half the album is slower songs.  The last few songs on the record are slow.  Cut that album down to the 10 best songs and it would have been better received.

Staybrite wrote:

Oh yeah, I really like Shout Back as well.  I think people expected it to be a clone of the first two Shout albums or something like that.  From his solo stuff only have three of them, In The Witness Box, Tamplin and that first one "Tamplin & Friends".  I used to have another earlier solo album, but I seem to have lost it somewhere

alldatndensum wrote:

Shout Back had some good tunes.  However, it was too ballad heavy.  Half the album is slower songs.  The last few songs on the record are slow.  Cut that album down to the 10 best songs and it would have been better received.

I would not consider it ballad heavy at all. I think there are only 3 songs out of 18 that I would consider ballads. There are songs that I would consider AOR or bluesy that maybe you consider ballads. 

Anyway. great album.

My favorite tracks are: 

No Way, No How
I Just Want To Celebrate
AD-BC
Y2k (wow, that brings back a lot of memories of that era hahahaha)
Tell Me Why

AtomicFan wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

Oh yeah, I really like Shout Back as well.  I think people expected it to be a clone of the first two Shout albums or something like that.  From his solo stuff only have three of them, In The Witness Box, Tamplin and that first one "Tamplin & Friends".  I used to have another earlier solo album, but I seem to have lost it somewhere

alldatndensum wrote:

Shout Back had some good tunes.  However, it was too ballad heavy.  Half the album is slower songs.  The last few songs on the record are slow.  Cut that album down to the 10 best songs and it would have been better received.

I would not consider it ballad heavy at all. I think there are only 3 songs out of 18 that I would consider ballads. There are songs that I would consider AOR or bluesy that maybe you consider ballads. 

But you end up with a disjointed sounding album that has a lot more filler than killer.

I may end up going back after all these years and shaving some of those songs from the track list on my Hidizs player just to see if I can make the album feel more like a complete album instead of songs in various styles simply thrown together.  That's how it feels overall.  The first two seemed like they had a definite plan.

Mine shipped, I'm excited! 

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Mine shipped, I'm excited! 

I really thought about it, but I just went out last year and bought all the remastered reissues of Shout, Tamplin, and Tamplin & Friends..

Let us know how you like it

I got mine today but it may be a few days before I get to really explore it.  I am hopeful, but not I early so.

Mine did not arrive today.  I am super sad.

I finally got mine and I'm only through the second disc.  I wasn't sure that a 60+ song career retrospective would work, but I haven't heard a weak song yet.  Man what a talented singer/guitarist/song-writer.

I am finally getting to rip mine to MP3 today.  I will listen to it this week while doing traffic duties.  That ought to wake the nations......errrr.......students as they walk across the parking lot!

Is anyone finding the special versions of the songs on here rather blah?  I haven't heard a single one of them that sounded better than their original version.

alldatndensum wrote:

Is anyone finding the special versions of the songs on here rather blah?  I haven't heard a single one of them that sounded better than their original version.

I've only heard two of them, but I was wondering what was special about them.  Like, where they re-recorded or something?  They sound great, but I can't really tell the difference between the original version.

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Is anyone finding the special versions of the songs on here rather blah?  I haven't heard a single one of them that sounded better than their original version.

I've only heard two of them, but I was wondering what was special about them.  Like, where they re-recorded or something?  They sound great, but I can't really tell the difference between the original version.

They're special because he got you to rebuy them. LOL. 

In all seriousness, was that one disc all cover tunes?

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

Is anyone finding the special versions of the songs on here rather blah?  I haven't heard a single one of them that sounded better than their original version.

I've only heard two of them, but I was wondering what was special about them.  Like, where they re-recorded or something?  They sound great, but I can't really tell the difference between the original version.

There were a couple of the "special versions" that were exactly the same except for when they faded out.  Ken tacked the rest of the music back on for a couple more seconds of the song.  It didn't add anything to it at all.

The bonus disc, to me, is rather dull.  There isn't much hard rock or metal to it.  Disc three is also kind of a sleeper as Ken focused too much on ballads from the Shout Back album and his "Where Love Is" albums.  It really dragged that disc down.

I will probably delete this from my Hidizs player and just listen to the regular albums of his.  I also need to one day cut the slow songs from Shout Back that I don't like as it gets bogged down at the end.

AtomicFan wrote:

In all seriousness, was that one disc all cover tunes?

I'm listening to that last disc this morning (about half way through it).  
The first four tracks are original Ken Tamplin compositions (I had to look at the liner notes).  I thought for sure "Stormbringer" was going to be a cover of the Deep Purple track, but it isn't (its a Tamplin original).  It has a heavy Led Zep "Kashmir" vibe to it.  He's actually posted the song on bookface live previously (link below).

The remaining tracks all appear to be cover songs that are mostly 70's & 80's pop and rock songs (U2, Mr. Mister, Duran Duran, Mike & The Mechanics, The Bee Gees, Foreigner etc.)  But like Alldat said, a lot of "mellower" tracks on that disc.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=2619311394958269

Staybrite wrote:

AtomicFan wrote:

In all seriousness, was that one disc all cover tunes?

I'm listening to that last disc this morning (about half way through it).  
The first four tracks are original Ken Tamplin compositions (I had to look at the liner notes).  I thought for sure "Stormbringer" was going to be a cover of the Deep Purple track, but it isn't (its a Tamplin original).  It has a heavy Led Zep "Kashmir" vibe to it.  He's actually posted the song on bookface live previously (link below).

The remaining tracks all appear to be cover songs that are mostly 70's & 80's pop and rock songs (U2, Mr. Mister, Duran Duran, Mike & The Mechanics, The Bee Gees, Foreigner etc.)  But like Alldat said, a lot of "mellower" tracks on that disc.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=2619311394958269

Thanks for the link...

That's actually a really good song. I would listen to that, I mean I would listen to that again I should say...lol.. after all I DID just listen to it.

Based on the feedback so far, I'm glad I didn't plunge and buy the box set. As I previously stated, over the past year or two I bought all of the remasters released by Girder.