Crack The Darkest Sky Open Wide

This 2002 release is something of a comeback for Crack the Sky,and is a return to the early days for this amazing Baltimore prog band(whose self-titled 1975 debut album was hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as the "Debut Album of the Year").Crack the Sky is characteristically known for intelligent and insightful lyrics,strong musicianship(particularly on guitar) and for pulling elements of bands like Gentle Giant,Genesis and King Crimson into a unique blend of progressive rock that has rarely been done this well by anyone else. The band for this release is Bobby Hird (guitars,) John Palumbo (vocals, keyboards, guitar,) John Tracy (drums,) Rick Witkowski (guitars,) Glenn Workman (keyboards) and Carey Ziegler (bass.)

Here's a funny story about this album. When it was released, the title track "From The Greenhouse" got a fair amount of airplay on the local AOR station. The hook in the song sounded like it was lifted directly from Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar". I was managing a popular record/CD store in Cambridge, Mass. at the time. After the first dozen or so customers came in asking for "the new Pink Floyd album", and meaning this one, I displayed the album under a sign saying "Not Pink Floyd".Anyway, this at the time was another comeback album, with guitarist Rick Witkowski rejoining the band for the first time since "White Music" back in 1980.

On January 1, 1976 Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone magazine called the debut album by West Virginian prog-rock pioneers Crack The Sky "…one of year’s most impressive debuts." Today, some 40 years later the band will release a pair of albums: Living In Reverse, a new studio album; and Crackology, a collection of the band’s 12 career favorites, both out August 24, 2018 on Loud & Proud Records.

In 1976 Rolling Stone called prog-rock pioneers Crack The Sky “one of year’s most impressive debuts.” Today, 40+ years later, the band releases a new studio album entitled Tribes, due out early 2021. The title track speaks volumes about modern society’s perpetual cultural divide, wherein each side believes its inalienable right to champion the only opinion that matters.