The Boltons first official album since 2002 was released in January 2007! We are pleased
to say that the band is back to its original four members: Rob Bolton, and three now-married young ladies: Kim
Rzepka (formerly Kim Bolton), Julie Rowlands (formerly Julie Bolton) and Carolyn Simonelli (formerly Carolyn Probst).
The new album contains a unique assortment:
(Lyrics to some songs are available by clicking song titles.)
We don't sell our music, we give it away. You can download our songs
from our SONGS DOWNLOAD page. If you see
one here that you would like, but it's not on that page, just e-mail
us, and we'll e-mail you the song for free.
There are four new original Christian-pop-rock pieces. One of them is a satire
on sports fanatacism called "Our Favorite Teams".
This is being released now as a single, on a limited basis. Then there's the title
song of the album: a power-ballad that relates three real-life personal stories to a
lesson about true love. And then there are two straight-up melodic rockers: "New
Sheriff In Town", based on Revelation 11:15-19, and "The
Crossroads of Time", which addresses man's search for meaning. The lyrics for all
of these can be found by hitting the song titles, or the links below.
There are four traditional folk songs. While groups like the Kingston Trio pre-date
our musical interest a bit, we do love listening to "The Seekers". Their treatment of some public-domain
material influenced us, and we've done our best to cover some of that. These provide an opportunity to sing along.
Our favorite of these is probably "Dese Bones",
which was sung on southern plantations years ago by hopeful workers.
Then comes four 60's Oldies.
Yes, we're back to that again. In the summer of 2006, we did a "Tribute to the Dave Clark Five" CD, which
we gave to some friends, but was never intended to be openly offerred or sold. Encouraged by that, we've put two
more DC5 songs up: Mike Smith's "Glad All Over" and Ron Ryan's "Do Dah". Mike and Ron are good
friends of ours, and they have each enjoyed our previous treatment of their material. After those, Cindy Bolton
makes a cameo appearance joining Rob on "I'll Never Find Another You" (Seekers again). The fourth song's
a surprise.
Four old-time gospel standards close the album out, again providing opportunity
for corporate sing-along and even worship. The best of these so far is the Big Brass version of "Are
You Washed?"
While our band has no intention of re-forming for concerts, we do hope to continue to
record periodically, and share music with whomever is interested. Personally: Kim (and Aaron Rzepka) have a beautiful
new baby daughter, Riley Lynn. Julie (and Rick Rowlands)
have a beautiful new baby daughter, Victoria Paige.
Carolyn (and Brian Simonelli) have a new home complete with pets, as they consider further expansion. Rob (and
Cindy Bolton) remain madly in love with each other. All of the above continue to serve the Lord, by His grace.
We thank Him for the good times and bad, as we embrace the beauty of it all.
ALBUM REVIEWS:
From the INDIANA METHODIST MUSIC REVIEW, 2/07:
"Listening to The Boltons 2007 album is an auditory foretaste of the New Jerusalem.
The CD is a perfect blend of original contemporary Christian music, lovely secular songs of the 60's, traditional
gospel, and classic hymns. The patron of the family group's Rob Bolton wrote the album's first four songs. Two
of them, "New Sheriff In Town" and "The Crossroads of Time" deserve to become new Christian
classics themselves. I've played it over and over again, and if you could wear out a CD, I probably would. As Rob
once told his former Hiram College room-mate "You're never bored with the Lord." - Lee Gamson 2/07