Whitford/St. Holmes – Record-facts…

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Whitford/St. Holmes is the first album by the hard rock collaboration of the American musicians Brad Whitford and Derek St. Holmes (of Aerosmith and Ted Nugent respectively), released in 1981.

In 1981, Whitford left Aerosmith. He teamed up with St. Holmes, who had previously played with Ted Nugent, to form “Whitford/St. Holmes”, together with Dave Hewitt and Steve Pace who were later replaced by bass guitarist Chase Chitty and the drummer Larue Riccio (Baby and the Pacifiers). They toured the southeastern United States and performed before small audiences.

In 1981, they recorded this album. It was followed by a tour but neither the album nor the tour had any big success. In 1983, Whitford reunited with Joe Perry to play live at several shows with his band The Joe Perry Project. In 1984, both Whitford and Perry returned to Aerosmith to record Done with Mirrors, released in 1985 on Geffen Records.^{[citation needed]} St. Holmes worked with Nugent again sporadically in the following years.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, two of Aerosmith‘s members left the band and pursued projects of their own. First, lead guitarist Joe Perry formed his Joe Perry Project in 1979, and then, in 1981, rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford formed the short-lived Whitford/St. Holmes with former Ted Nugent guitarist Derek St. Holmes (who is heard as strictly a singer on this album). Rounding out the four-man lineup were bassist David Hewett and drummer Steve Pace. Fair or unfair, this collection of hard rock and arena rock was bound to be compared to Aerosmith–and it definitely isn’t in a class with Aerosmith pearls like Toys in the Attic or Get Your Wings. But while this album isn’t fantastic, it isn’t bad either. Commercial, Sammy Hagar-ish tunes like “Every Morning,” “Whiskey Woman” and “Spanish Boy” are derivative and not the least bit innovative — this is exactly the type of corporate rock that music critics loved to hate. But as conventional and less-than-distinctive as those songs are, the fact is that they’re also rather catchy. Besides, there was no law in 1981 stating that every rock recording had to be as cutting-edge and chance-taking as Elvis Costello, X, U2 or the Clash. Whitford/St. Holmes never recorded a second album.