''Open the Door'' is the third studio album by English musician

Roger Hodgson Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson (born 21 March 1950) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the band’ ...

. It was released on 9 May 2000 by Epic Records. It is his first studio release since 1987.

Overview

''Open the Door'' was recorded mostly in France and features mostly French musicians, many who have played on '' Excalibur (La Légende Des Celtes)'' also produced by Simon featuring contributions from Hodgson, as his backup band. This is Hodgson's only solo album to be partially recorded outside the United States. Once again collaborating with Hodgson, former Yes guitarist and vocalist

Trevor Rabin Trevor Charles Rabin (; born ) is a South African rock musician and composer. Born into a musical family and raised in Johannesburg, Rabin took up the piano and guitar at an early age and became a session musician, playing and producing with a va ...

contributed electric guitar, keyboards and background vocals on "The More I Look". The song "Showdown" was performed live by Hodgson already in 1996 and a live version was released on his latest album ''

Rites Of Passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...

''. "Death and a Zoo" and "Say Goodbye" were performed live by Hodgson already in 1998.

Reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

gave the album a positive review, calling it "the closest thing to Supertramp since '' ...Famous Last Words...''" and praising the songwriting, particularly the unusual incorporation of French influences.

Track listing

All songs written by Roger Hodgson, except where noted. #"Along Came Mary" 6:24 #"The More I Look" 4:57 #"Showdown" 5:20 #"Hungry" 4:27 #"The Garden" 2:15 #"Death and a Zoo" 7:32 #"Love is a Thousand Times" 3:30 #"Say Goodbye" 3:57 #"Open the Door" 8:55 #"For Every Man" (Roger Hodgson, Alan Simon) 4:43

Bonus track

"Danielle" – 3:15

Album chart

* France: # 30 * Switzerland: # 33 * Germany: # 74

Personnel

* Roger Hodgson - vocals, guitars (tracks 3, 4, 6, 10),

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

(tracks 1, 2, 7),

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

(track 8),

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

(tracks 1–4, 6, 9),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

(track 6),

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

(track 5), pipe organ (tracks 8, 9), harpsichord (track 8)

church organ Carol Williams performing at the United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel.">West_Point_Cadet_Chapel.html" ;"title="United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel">United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel. ...

(track 11) *

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

, keyboards, backing vocals (track 2) * Claude Samard - banjo, (track 3) Dobro slide guitar (tracks 3, 4),

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

(tracks 6, 7), pedal steel guitar (track 7),

oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...

(track 9) * Manuel Delgado - Spanish guitar (track 9), palmas (track 9) *

Dan Ar Braz Dan Ar Braz (; born Daniel Le Bras on 15 January 1949 in Quimper) is a Breton guitarist-singer-composer and the founder of L'Héritage des Celtes, a 50-piece Pan-Celt band. Leading guitarist in Celtic music, Dan Ar Braz has recorded as a solo ...

- arpeggio guitar (track 10) * Laurent Vernerey - bass guitar (tracks 1–5, 7, 9, 10) * Alan Thomson - bass guitar (track 6) * Arnaud Dunoyer - Hammond organ (tracks 1, 7, 9, 10) * Olivier Rousseau - piano (tracks 2, 3) * Alan Simon - high whistle (tracks 1, 6), bodhran (track 6), harmonica (track 9) * Loïc Ponthieu - drums (tracks 1–5, 7, 9, 10)), wavedrum (track 9) * Denis Banarrosh -

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

(tracks 1, 3–7, 9, 10) *

Gerry Conway Gerard Francis Conway Thomas, Roy. "Roy's Rostrum" ("Bullpen Bulletins") in '' Marvel Super-Heroes'' #43 and other Marvel Comics cover-dated May 1974. (born September 10, 1952) is an American comic book writer, comic book editor, screenwriter, t ...

- percussion (tracks 1, 6), drums (track 8) * Jeff Phillips - drums (track 6) * Jean Pierre Meneghin - Scottish drums (track 1) * Gurvan Houdayer - Scottish drums (track 1) * Christophe Negre -

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

(1, 4, 10) * Michel Gaucher - flute (track 9) * Zdenek Rys -

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

(track 6) * Bruno Le Rouzic -

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

(track 1) * Pascal Martin -

uilleann pipe The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their ...

(tracks 1, 6) * Jean Louis Roques - accordion (tracks 1, 7, 10) * Marco Canepa - Morse code (tracks 1, 10) *

Jean-Jacques Milteau Jean-Jacques Milteau (born 17 April 1950, Paris) is a French blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter, as well as radio presenter. Career Milteau became interested in the harmonica when he first heard folk and rock music (such as Bob D ...

- harmonica (track 3) * Dominique Regef -

rebec The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings. Origi ...

(track 5, 11),

Hurdy Gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

(track 6) *

Didier Lockwood Didier Lockwood (11 February 1956 – 18 February 2018) was a French violinist. He played in the French rock band Magma in the 1970s, and was known for his use of electric amplification and his experimentation with different sounds on the electri ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

(tracks 3, 6, 8, 9) * Pavel Belohlavek -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

(track 6) * Ilana Russell (Alana Cunningham) - children's choir * Sierrah Dietz - children's chorus (track 10) * Justine Black - children's chorus (track 10) * Molly Katwman - children's chorus (track 10) * Nikki Matheson - backing vocals (track 11) *The Symphonic Orchestra of Prague; conducted by Mario Klemens (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8-10) *The Bulgarian Voices "Philippopolis"; conducted by Hristo Arabadjiev (tracks 8, 9) *Samples from: speech by Queen Elizabeth II (track 1), Rev. Jesse Jackson (track 3), Ronald Reagan (track 3), Sevik the wolf (track 6)

References

{{Authority control 2000 albums Epic Records albums Roger Hodgson albums Albums produced by Roger Hodgson Albums recorded in a home studio