Bob Halligan Jr. has written songs for KISS, Judas Priest, Joan Jett, Blue Oyster Cult, KIX, and other great hard rockers including Icon, Lee Aaron, Night Ranger and Helix. Bob also writes songs for himself, especially his Celtic Rock band, Ceili Rain. These guys have been together for 28 years, and just released their ninth studio album, Crash This Gate.
Produced by the band’s leader/songwriter/lead singer/keyboards/guitar/ percussion Bob Halligan Jr and mixed & mastered by Roman Klun, these 12 songs are the first new material from the group in 9 years. Bob’s bandmates are Raymond Arias (guitar & vocals), Burt Mitchell (tin whistle, flute, Highland bagpipes), Bill Bleistine (drums), Joe Davoli (fiddle, mandolin), and Kevin de Souza (bass & vocals).
In keeping with the band’s motto “For kids from 3 to 93,” Crash The Gate’s motivational songs inform our life journeys and make our pathways easier to negotiate! The album’s title track “Crash This Gate” speaks of unstoppable & unconditional love. Three songs memorializing the pandemic (“Ten Million” “The Once-and-Future Human Race” and “One Pull Nearer the Shore”) mark the difficulties and triumphs of humanity through that crisis.
“It’s You I Love About It” illustrates ways in which we identify ourselves and others in art. “Birdhouse,” co-written with Bob’s wife Linda, has a message of accepting differences; the song is being developed into a children’s book. “Love Corporation” addresses earthly priorities. “I Can Believe” suggests we HAVE to believe to survive. “Used to Be White” celebrates an awakening to diversity & inclusiveness. “My Specialty” is an ode to married romance. “Fall to You” talks of finding identity & meaning through a committed relationship. “Twenty Seconds” is a rousing call to arms to stand up to adversity with cheers, bagpipes, wailing fiddles, guitars, and triumphant drums, “Twenty seconds of courage is all you really need!”
For 12 years, through 2019, Bob was an adjunct professor, teaching classes on songwriting, film scoring, the music business, and The Beatles at Syracuse University. He can share stories about co-writing KISS’s “Rise To It” and “Read My Body” with Paul Stanley and writing “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll” after Judas Priest covered “Screaming For Vengeance” his first pitch to them. He can talk about his career-long friendship with the band KIX, and their collaboration, notably their breakthrough hit, “Don’t Close Your Eyes” with the band’s Donnie Purnell and Crack the Sky’s John Palumbo. Other artists that have recorded Bob’s songs include Cher, Michael Bolton, country’s Kathy Mattea. Movies including “Iron Eagle” “Light Of Day” and “Wayne’s World,” included his songs.
