The Elusive Robin Zander - Countryside Blvd. Record

In case you don't know by now, I'm a huge Cheap Trick fan. When I first heard about Robin Zander putting out a solo album called Countryside Blvd. I had mixed emotions. I really enjoy Robin Zander's singing but I HATE country music... wait, let me put it this way, I kind of like old country, but the country/pop music people are pushing today is the music that I HATE! So I was really curious to get this record and see what Robin had up his sleeve with this record. I heard about this record over a year ago, probably in April or May of 2010, and it was described as.. "a fresh country sound with a combination of musical styles".

The first released date I saw was May of 2010, then June 2010, then September 2010, then November 2010, and so on and so forth. Every time I looked it up it seemed like the record was being pushed back more and more. Then they released the thing on Itunes, but if you blinked you would have missed it because it was only released for a few hours and then pulled from Itunes, Amazon and Napster. I read on the Cheap Trick messageboard that a few people were lucky to pick it up, but most waited and missed out on it.

So, missing out, I waited. Occasionally I would check a few blogs and sites to see if the album leaked anywhere, but nothing was found. Until this past Monday (8-15-2011). On my way to work, I pulled out my Iphone and started my Rhapsody app. Not knowing what to listen to, for some reason I typed in Robin Zander in the search query and wham, Countryside Blvd. shows up in Rhapsody. This must be a mistake, I thought. The album isn't released yet but it's available for streaming on Rhapsody? So I streamed the album on the way to work, it sounded very good, I wouldn't call it "country" more popish than country, but Robin's songs were very good and I enjoyed the album a lot. There were a couple of clinkers on the album but overall I was impressed. Then I said to myself, I've got to listen to this again.

So a few days passed, and on my way to work on Thursday (8-18-2011), I decided to listen to Robin's album again. So I started Rhapsody, did a search on Robin Zander and... NOTHING came up!! Oh No! So I did another search for Countryside and.... NOTHING! After trying a few more times, I gave up. Then I realized they had pulled the stream. Why? Is it that they weren't supposed to put the album up on Rhapsody and nobody listened to it but me and when Rhapsody checked their playlist, they realized someone listened to Countryside, and realized that the album was not supposed to be up so they pulled it? It's a mystery!

So the elusive album mystery continues.. I'm sure this thing will be released eventually, but why all the mystery surrounding it? Why released it on digital format then pull it, why release a streaming version and then pull it? The record is not a dog, and is quite good so I don't see any good reason what the delay is. I guess we'll never know.....