Vintage Vinyls by Citadel ®

hope you enjoy this sampling of the spirit and energy driving this diverse band across genre borders, from the late 70’s & beyond the new millennium…

From progressive rock to hard rock to acoustic rock; smooth duets and solo ballads to blues rock to classic rock and symphonic styles; the first and original Citadel® music band truly explores and incorporates many sources of inspiration and influences.

Over the years, many people have dedicated their heart & soul, time, energy, equipment and visions to help others discover the Citadel® experience. Citadel® wishes to thank those listeners, musicians, mentors and engineers who shared their ears, talents and encouragement to help the Citadel® dream become reality. It is in their honor and toward their legacies that this release is dedicated! Citadel® also wants to give extra exceptional phenomenal appreciation to the ORIGINAL Recording Workshop (that's in Massiville, Ohio) and its dedicated, fun and talented staff unified with unparalleled professionalism, beautiful countrysides, great people and unrelenting hospitalities!

Citadel ® is a registered U.S. tradename, used herein with exclusive permission

LINER NOTES (see FREE Lyric/Photo booklet for additional text and images)

During a high school art period, the class was told to draw a still life of a guitar that had only 2 strings. When the teacher left for java and biscotti, one student grabbed the guitar and snuck into the supply closet. In the next 20 minutes, the basic idea for 3 songs came to life. Maybe having only two strings made it easier to compose, as this art student had only started learning the guitar shortly before. Days later, another art teacher, Rita Gray, overheard one of those songs (Voice Inside) being played on a 12-string at lunch period. She felt the words were quite appropriate for aspiring artists and promised she would present a tape of it for consideration as the theme song for an annual Governor's Art Show. Rita was one of the first to inspire this student, G. Whitman, to aim toward what has been a lifelong trek through the music biz, doing gigs and concerts, releasing records, tapes, CD's and DVD's, producing videos, films and cable television shows, and producing concerts and festivals, like for instance, ProgFest - which was Whitman's initial idea yet later credited to those just brought on board to help make it happen.

The song "Voice Inside", a pop-folk vocal duet composition, was chosen by the Regents, and fellow Westland student Karen Davis sang it with Whitman live at the awards ceremony, in what was Whitman's first performance of original material. Days later the student council added it to the ballot for class song voting, and "Voice Inside" won over Seals and Crofts, among others, with Whitman performing the song live accompanied by Karen and an 8mm a/v film 'motion-projection-of-self' project for harmonies and rhythm guitar on "Hard Life". Creative writing teacher, Jack Carter-North, also considered integral in Whitman's musical beginnings, suggested making a record of the song to sell as a graduation memento. Whitman didn't even know the first part of the whole process, but found out that it cost about $1000 start to finish. North suggested collecting a dollar from students in advance to fund the project and promise delivery of records at June's Ceremony. North also bought the first advance copies. Whitman raised enough to do the session and at this point, Ed Whitney and Bob Fister of Star Track Studios, became Whitman's first studio mentors.

"Voice Inside" b/w "Hard Life" (blues rock), Whitman's first 45 rpm vinyl release, showed the soft and hard sides of Whitman’s art and sold in excess of 2000 copies, receiving regional airplay on 'local artist' shows. It also included drummer John Raugh, and bassist Tom Jordan who went on to play concerts with Whitman at the Riverfront Amphitheater. It was here that Whitman also debuted another Whitman invention of a self-supporting acoustic guitar holder, allowing the player to wear an electric while walking up behind to play the acoustic on the stand - an idea later used in a commercially released product and critical to the compositional style of Whitman and countless other acoustic/electric performers. That first 45 release was followed in 1979 by another Whitman/Star Track single chosen for the first QFM Radio Album Project, which introduced Whitman's band, Citadel, and their metal/hard rock/progressive song "Silence of Surrender (SOS)" - think Airplane meets Rush meets Priest…

Citadel had started as only Whitman and drummer, J. Wears, but Wears' problems with the law snatched his opportunity to continue with the band. Veteran jazz-rock drummer Fletcher Neal Hutchison enlisted with Whitman and they completed the Citadel lineup by adding bassist, Wayne Stephens, string arranger Tim Muffit and bringing in Jeff Warner to co-produce their self released album from the first Star Track recording sessions. That same year, Citadel performed "Silence of Surrender", along with a set of songs from the full-length debut, at a QFM radio station-sponsored, live simul-cast Agora concert on the OSU campus strip (Citadel: Live at the Agora - released on DVD). That show (with an OSU string quartet on "Stygian Barque"), was the only to include Wayne and Karen, and was the first of many Citadel concerts to follow, spanning nearly three decades (so far) and covering the US from Ohio to California. Nearly every Citadel concert was videotaped due to Whitman's obsession with the visual medium, inspired by Warner who owned the gear and shot those earliest Citadel videos. Jeff's bro, recording artist/keyboardist Scott Warner, joined up with Whitman for a winter of recording sessions at Warner's estate since they both had bought 4-track reel-to-reel machines - "Lothlorien" is one of the demos that came out of that pairing. Cannabis guitarist, Mark Davis, joined then left again quickly, but not before demos of "Sermon's End" "Wings of Soul" and "Wounded Train" had been laid down to tape - imagine a heavy metal version of ELP or Genesis...

Whitman, Warner, Whitney & Fister went on to finish Citadel's first album at Star Track with Fletcher and Tim, which was first released on cassette and sold nearly 5000 copies in that format, receiving regional airplay for songs "Dungeons of War" "Life" and "Silence of Surrender" from inclusion on vinyl compilations and radio promotions. Citadel then self-produced an outdoor multi-band festival at Valley Ranch with Anita Hutchison on keys and Chris Freeman on bass. Shortly thereafter, one of those who attended that festival met up with Whitman at a Rundgren concert, and when both later met up in California, Kiki (Kiki Wow) joined Citadel on guitar and vocals. Kiki also soon picked up bass, at Whitman's urging and tutelage, to fill the void left by the absence of Wayne and Chris.

Citadel received rave reviews in local paper, The Monthly Planet, and through them responded to a need for 'Original Bands' which was to launch a lasting relationship with The Recording Workshop as one of the 'house-bands' bringing in songs for professional multi-track recording by aspiring student engineers. Each Advanced Semester at TRW concluded with the scholars mixing songs to be pressed onto vinyl 33-1/3 rpm compilation LP's. Citadel recorded nearly 100 songs during this tenure, and 11 appeared on four Workshop vinyls with Fletcher, John Ettore or drumming wildman, Dan Smart on the skins, and several guest musicians such as Jeff Ling, Jim McKell and the Kentucky String Quartet. After four years of this gratifying self-indulgence, the band, now the Whitmans with John Ettore, left Ohio for California with engineer, Eric Grant. A veritable revolving door band of musicians - with a Whitman or two always in there somewhere - Citadel has persevered through more than a dozen commercial releases and hundreds of concerts - and they are still going strong nearly thirty years later!

Advances in computer technology permit this re-release of these Citadel vinyl archives in sparkling digital format - taken directly from the wax without artifact-laden pop removal or over-compressed frequency re-tuning. W.E. is pleased to present Vintage Vinyls from the Citadel® vaults just as it would sound if you still owned a turntable…headphones recommended!

SONGS ON THIS CD:

S.O.S. (Silence of Surrender)

MIX: Ed Whitney and Bob Fister @ Star Track Studios – from the QFM Hometown Album

STYLE: Hard and Fast Rock with odd changes, vocoders, and a spoken dialogue/lead guitar break

ARTISTS: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Vocoder/G. Whitman - Drums/Jeff Wears

Many Struggles

MIX: Angela Aldridge and Michael Paskey @ The Recording Workshop - Unity Gain-WI82

STYLE: Acoustic 12 and 6 string guitars, duo vocals, brushed snare and hi-hat with felt-malleted vibes

ARTISTS: Vocals, Guitars, Keys/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums and Vibes/Fletcher Neal Hutchison

Dungeons of War

MIX: Robert Camassa and Jeff Cooper @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-WI81

STYLE: Prog rock, dynamic changes from solemn intro, to folk verses, rock choruses and screaming leads

ARTISTS: Vocals, Bass Pedals, Guitars, Bells/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums and Mix Effects/Dan Smart

Lothlorien

MIX: Tony Fay and Jim Tobar @ The Recording Workshop - Unity Gain-WI82

STYLE: Symphonic rock, flamenco-flavored intro, full bodied acoustic verses with slamming choruses, a long lead bridge and a charging crescendo exit verse

ARTISTS: Vocals, Bass Pedals, Guitars/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass, Keyboards/K. Whitman - Drums and Mix Effects/Dan Smart

Winter’s Dying

MIX: Allan Pahansih and Dave Phillips @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-1281

STYLE: Rock and roll with shades of metal and prog, searing vocals and guitars, thundering drums and bass

ARTISTS: Vocals, Bass Pedals, Guitars/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums and Mix Effects/Dan Smart

On Death and Dying

MIX: Ken Loewit and Bill Neudorf @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-WI81

STYLE: 3/4 timed, swaying folk rock with a solid classical/new age instrumental closing

ARTISTS: Vocals, Bass Pedals, Keys, Guitars/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums/Dan Smart

Moral Eyes (moralize)

MIX: Dave Stockhoff and Mike O'Reilly @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-SP82

STYLE: A blues-flavored rock and roll journey (on a slave ship) with pendulum bass, choppy guitars, effervescent layered vocals, and precision phrased drumming

ARTISTS: Vocals, Guitars, Foley/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums/Dan Smart

Background Voices in Slave Ship - TRW Advanced Workshop Engineers

Mindshine (brainglow)

MIX: Glen Smith and Frank Decker @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-SP82

STYLE: Alternative/Progressive upbeat Folk has acoustic guitars and duet vocals abounding with solid timing, motion and finesse, plus a dreamy bridge

ARTISTS: Vocals, Guitars/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums and Effects/Dan Smart

Standing Alone

STYLE: Progressive/Classic Rock starts with a ballad intro, jumps at you with a rock chorus and leaps off a cliff into a hard progressive bridge, but there is a soft landing

MIX: Chris Frymire and Ted Greenfield @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-WI81

ARTISTS: Vocals, Guitars/G. Whitman - Vocals, Bass/K. Whitman - Drums/Dan Smart

We Are Alone

MIX: Ben Ing and Nick Burnett @ The Recording Workshop - AdWkshp-WI81

STYLE: Adult Contemporary with smooth jazz vocals and acoustic guitars, however there is some solid acoustic rock jams hiding in the middle

ARTISTS: Vocals, Guitars, Bass and Pedals/G. Whitman - Vocals, Guitar/K. Whitman - Drums/Dan Smart

Lost Kid

MIX: Debra Hadraba and John Lieurance @ The Recording Workshop - Unity Gain-WI82

STYLE: Classic Rock, lively ballad verses with hard rock choruses and lead breaks

ARTISTS: Vocals and Guitars/G. Whitman - Vocals and Bass/K. Whitman - Drums/F. Hutchison - Hammond B3/J. McKell

Freedom Song (Instrumental Prelude)

MIX: Steve Scott and C. Stuart Brady @ The Recording Workshop - Unity Gain-WI82

STYLE: All instrumental excerpts from The Citadel of Cynosure full score

ARTIST: All synths, pianos, organs, guitar, bass and pedals/G. Whitman

The Voice Inside

MIX: Bob Fister and Ed Whitney @ Star Track Studios - ST45-78

STYLE: Acoustic guitars with precise double vocal harmonies and jazz bass moves

ARTISTS: Vocals and Guitars/G. Whitman - Backing Vocals/Karen Davis - Bass/Tom Jordan

Hard Life

MIX: Bob Fister and Ed Whitney @ Star Track Studios - ST45-78

STYLE: Blues rock with nothing but a groove, scowling vocals, thick guitars and thumping bass

ARTISTS: Vocals and Guitars/G. Whitman - Bass/Tom Jordan - Drums/J.R. Raugh

Performed by Citadel® All Music, Lyrics, and Related are ©G.Whitman (BMI), Citadel of Cynosure Prod (BMI) and W.E. (Whitman Enterprises)

All rights reserved, used with exclusive permission, unauthorized duplication is illegal.

The Photos/Lyric Booklet is released as a set with the accompanying Digital Audio CD.

For ordering information, please visit www.citadelsongs.com, www.cdbaby.com or email us at: citadel_1@msn.com.

Booklet Concept and Creation by www.rejyna.com

Mastered and Duplicated @ wePOD™ Studios, Burbank, CA, USA

Made in the USA

Citadel™ is a registered U.S. tradename, used herein with exclusive permission

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