EDGE ENTERTAINMENT ONLINE volume 2 September | Page 13

Seriously? No pressure there… It also appeared that Paul Ames, Crimson Storm’s fearless follically-gifted leader was a man with a vision. So while my eyes began to roll to the back of my head and a bead of sweat permeated my well-powdered (but void of wrinkles) forehead, Ames went on to explain… He simply said that he liked the rock-quality of my voice and Crimson Storm needed a strong back-up singer/bassist. The way he figured, someone that had been playing guitar for as long as I had should have no trouble transferring to bass…how does Tuesday sound? Oh, and by the way--we are a metal band. Metal? So, of course, I launched into a dream sequence in which visions of people biting heads off of bats danced in my head. But something about Ames’s nonchalant delivery and confidence lulled me into the thought process of “What do I have to lose? After all, I’m not, like, a BAT or anything!” And it was (admittedly) with some level of trepidation that I pointed the Altima towards Phoenix and met this imposing figure of a man, Ames. He quickly thrust a guitar in my hands and said “play”. And thisfast, I had a bass guitar strapped to me and was thumping to the melodic stylings of Metallica and Megadeth. No shame in my game, fer shizzle. I am happy to report that I am properly “bruising a bass” under the tutaledge of Paul Ames--and no bats have been harmed in the process. But the Journalist/PR Woman in me wondered “Who are these people…my new brothers in metal?” And, as I toiled laying down my bass parts, while singing and everso-delicately (I’m still a freakin’ lady!) perspiring in our Phoenix rehearsal space and later, in the recording studio, I slowly learned the compelling story behind Crimson Storm, the band and the music. Let’s start at the beginning with founder, Paul Amesguitarist, lead vocalist and visionary songwriter. Ames grew up in a troubled family (a prerequisite to metal music) and his adolesence was one of strife that often found him residing in abandoned cars and houses (this is what rappers call “street cred”, I think). This path had a predictable result, but an unpredictable outcome. Ames landed on the wrong end of the law and served time. However, as we frequently read regarding incarceration and the rehabilitation process, it is often a mute exercise and our prisons become a revolving door of “lost souls”. But not where Ames was concerned. Ames found his “light” from an unlikely source…a