Rockasteria: Sky Dancer - Alive (1977 us, stunning live hard rock with prog shades, 2023 edition)

Sky Dancer is a group from Damon, Iowa. This is the only album released by USA All in One Records in 1977 as a Private Press self-release, and is a live recording of a concert at The Royal Grove in Lincoln, Nebraska, in July 1977. The band consists of Decky Dykman, Doc Lawson, Zeke Ziebell, and Daniel Knisley, and was co-produced by the band and Steve Monroe. The band generally has a blues-based progressive hard sound with a certain amount of mainstream pop-ness, and the heavy riffs and phrases, melodic vocal lines, progressive arrangements, and fast-paced performance are a pretty good match.

The guitars, Hammond organ, and bass are all played with a lot of energy and bursting with timely and fast passages, and the drumming is perfectly lively, following the music with precision, making the ensemble fluent and proficient, which is honestly cool. The quality of the performance, the catchiness of the music, and the maturity of the arrangements, including the final tearful ballad, clearly exceed the level of an independent release, and if the recording quality were a little better, the result would be on par with the first-line major labels. It is a good album that lovers of hard and prog rock will enjoy. In 2008 Sky Dancer has been inducted into the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.