Tower of Power Returns with “Step Up”
Tower of Power celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2018 with an album called Soul Side of Town. Though it was a partial victory lap for the band, they’re clearly not done as they’ve just released a new album called Step Up. The fourteen tracks were worked up over a six-year period and recorded during the same session as Soul Side.
“Our latest recording was a deep labor of love because we were coming up on 50 years together as a group,” TOP founder Emilio Castillo told American Songwriter. “One of my old managers told me it was not the time to just throw together 12 songs quickly. He said we needed to make the best CD of our career and the only way to do that was to do the ‘Michael Jackson Method,’ which was to record 25 songs or so and then pick the best 12. That was my primary aim and motivation throughout the whole project. We wound up cutting 28 all-new original songs and the new record company loved all of it so we wound up releasing two CDs: ‘Soul Side Of Town’ and now ‘Step Up.’”
Longtime Tower of Power bassist Francis “Rocco” Prestia is featured on the album, although he has since stepped back from touring. (Marc Van Wageningen has been their bassist since 2018.) Though he doesn’t employ as much of his signature sixteenth-note fingerstyle funk on the track, you can hear Prestia’s attitude on “Step Up”:
Step Up is available now on CD, vinyl and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).
Step Up Track List:
- East Bay! All the Way!
- Step Up
- The Story of You and I
- Who Would Have Thought?
- Addicted to You
- Look in My Eyes
- You da One
- Sleeping with You Baby
- If It’s Tea Give Me Coffee
- Beyond My Wildest Dreams
- Any Excuse Will Do
- If You Wanna Be a Winner
- Let’s Celebrate Our Love
- East Bay! Oaktown All The Way!
