4.5 out of 5 Stars!

From Los Angeles, Storyteller (not to be confused with several other groups with the same name) released only one mere album of terrific, keyboard-heavy AOR/Hard Rock in 2000 before vanishing. But a bit of history here to clarify the album’s year of release—

From what I’ve been able to unearth regarding Storyteller, the band (made up of Jerome Story on lead vocals, Stephen Teller on drums—get it? Story & Teller, hence the band’s name—J.P. on guitars, Craig Campbell on keyboards, and John Fagan on bass) strove unsuccessfully to secure a recording contract for more than a decade, but the timing for a band of this nature in the grunge-obsessed ’90s proved a nightmare, as you can imagine. Yet during those many years, Storyteller worked with famed producer Jeff Glixman to produce numerous demos, until finally, a German record label (MTM) released this collection for the world’s enjoyment in 2000. Now, I’m unsure whether the band re-recorded the tracks or simply used the original demos and added fresh production, instrumentation, and mixing magic, but whatever Storyteller did, this album was about a decade in the making.

But was it worth the lengthy wait?

Absolutely! On tracks such as the glorious Pomp-Rock opener “What She Wants,” as well as “Like It or Not,” “White Liar,” “She Sherea,” “Private Eye,” “Never,” and the Prog-touched “Wait ‘Til You Find Me,” the band demonstrates its knack for creating catchy melodies, with rich background vocals, layered Pomp-Rock keyboards, sizzling guitar solos, and solid and varied tempos in the tradition of bands such as Giuffria, White Sister, Vishusgruv, Strangeways, LRB, Axe, Touch, and perhaps a pompier version of early Bon Jovi. On the magnificent ballads with soaring vocals and lush production such as the title tune, along with “Where Is Daniel?” and “Hello Heaven,” it’s clear that Storyteller could have easily and successfully taken up the torch from groups such as Bad English and Journey if only Storyteller had been given the chance.

Supposedly, most of these tracks were written in the late-’80s/early-’90s, another reason for my comparisons to the aforementioned groups from that period, since Storyteller’s musical influences are fairly obvious and abundant. Yet as mentioned, the overall production on Corridor of Windows sounds pristine and modern, so fans of more contemporary AOR and Pomp Rock acts such as House of Lords, Place Vendome, Find Me, Sunstorm, Work of Art, Serpentine, and Bad Habit will undoubtedly discover much to enjoy here.

Regardless, Storyteller was a band that should have been given a chance to shine, but timing played a major stumbling block, thus delaying this superior collection of tracks from seeing the light of day. But thankfully it did, and I, for one, cherish it.

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