America’s legendary progressive rock band Kansas release their new live album Point of Know Return Live & Beyond on 28th May 28 and they have just released a new single from it in ‘Portrait (He Knew)’.
Co-produced by Phil Ehart and Richard Williams, Point of Know Return Live & Beyond was recorded and mixed by Chad Singer. The album features 22 songs selected from 12 shows recorded in 2019 and 2020 during the band’s anniversary tour for that album. The setlist includes classic hits, deep cuts, and culminates with the band’s sextuple-platinum album, Point of Know Return, performed in its entirety.
‘Portrait (He Knew)’ was preceded by video singles for ‘The Wall‘ and title track, ‘Point Of Know Return’, and they can all be viewed here at RAMzine.
Kansas has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and the band is famous for classic hits such as ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ and ‘Dust in the Wind’ to progressive epics like ‘Song for America.’
The tour the new live album was recorded on proved even more popular than their previous Leftoverture Anniversary Tour, and thus the decision for the band and record label Inside Out Music to release selected songs from the tour as a live album.
“We knew we wanted to release a live album of the Point of Know Return Anniversary Tour. Being unable to tour for more than a year has given us the opportunity to work on Point of Know Return Live & Beyond and release it for our fans who are missing live concerts as much as we are,” said drummer and original member Phil Ehart. “When we discussed who would mix the album, we thought the best possible person would be the guy who mixes the band live every night and recorded the shows on the road. Nobody knows better how Kansas sounds live than our front of house engineer, Chad Singer!”
“This live album sounds great,” added lead guitarist and album co-producer Richard Williams. “We wanted to make sure this album captures and represents how KANSAS sounds live in concert. Point of Know Return Live & Beyond does just that.”
Alongside Ehart and Williams, Point of Know Return Live & Beyond features Tom Brislin on keyboards and vocals, Billy Greer on bass and vocals, Ronnie Platt on lead vocals and keyboards, David Ragsdale on violin and vocals, and Zak Rizvi on guitar and vocals.
Point of Know Return Live & Beyond will be distributed by The Orchard. The album will be available as a double CD digipak, triple 180-gram vinyl + 2 CD box-set, and digitally on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iTunes, and other digital retailers.
Track Listing for the album is as follows: ‘Cold Grey Morning’, ‘Two Cents Worth’, ‘The Wall’, ‘Song For America’, ‘Summer’, ‘Musicatto’, ‘Taking In The View’, ‘Miracles’, ‘Out Of Nowhere’, ‘Point Of Know Return’, ‘Paradox’, ‘The Spider’, ‘Portrait (He Knew)’, ‘Closet Chronicles’, ‘Lightning’s Hand’, ‘Dust In The Wind’, ‘Sparks Of The Tempest’, ‘Nobody’s Home’, ‘Hopelessly Human’, ‘Carry On Wayward Son’, ‘People Of The South Wind’, ‘Refugee’ and ‘Lonely Wind’.
Cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic, Kansas will reschedule Point of Know Return Anniversary Tour dates as well as Kansas Classics tour dates. More information can be found at the band website here.
Kansas has also released a teaser for the live album, alongside those for the singles, that you can watch here at RAMzine.‘
