For those unaware, Mansion Road Music is proud to announce the release of the third CD from Gamache Marak Rondini entitled HardKnox Reprise , coming out on August 12th, 2022.

As the song goes, it was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Pep ... no wait, wrong band, wrong story! They actually think theirs is more interesting because it’s true, and they might not be too off with that thought either!

No Flaming Pies, no screaming fans (well, very few anyway), no backward recorded secret messages, their albums are nothing but pure pop-rock musical gems from start to finish!

40+ years ago Wayne Gamache (guitar, vocals) and Tom Marak (bass and vocals) put together the first of many iterations of the Connecticut band HardKnox.

A bit later in 1980, Tony Rondini (lead guitar and vocals) joined and became one of the core members of the band. In 1984, after 7 years playing (mostly throughout New England at area clubs, high schools and colleges), personnel changes, recording demos, two (2) 45 singles (Magical Man/Only You, I’m In Love Again/On My Way) and an EP (HardKnox Roughcut) of original material, the core members decided to call it a day.

Currently, all of these vinyl recordings are being bought and sold by many record collectors in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Official Discogs Purchase Link

Having released their last album, the well-received HardKnox Redux lst year (and which was an album of re-recorded and updated songs from the HardKnox RoughCut EP, and other songs written around the time that HardKnox was in existence during the late 70’s and early 80’s), the guys have come together once again to now bring us HardKnox Reprise.

1. Fame And Fortune
2. Second Place
3. Elizabeth Eaton
4. Wait For A Moment
5. We’ve Been Down This Road Before
6. Pick Up Your Gun (We Keep Asking Why)
7. Do You
8. I Didn’t Know How Hard I’d Fall For You
9. Let You Go
10. Anyway Love
11. Mr. Lennon

This brilliantly buoyant, AOR flashback of an album opens on the jaunty pop-rock of Fame And Fortune and the rhythmically melodic Second Place and then we get the ornately crafted, prog, mid-tempo balladry of Elizabeth Eaton, the energetically passionate Wait For A Moment, and then come the upbeat and melodious We’ve Been Down This Road Before and the forthright storytelling via rock messaging within Pick Up Your Gun (We Keep Asking Why).

Up next is the excitable energy found within Do You and the euphonious I Didn’t Know How Hard I’d Fall For You, which are in turn followed by the all out AOR, complete with rocking guitars of Let You Go, the album rounding out on the happy-go-lucky Anyway Love, coming to a close on the light and breezy, yet harmonious outreach of an ode to a legend within Mr. Lennon.

After the breakup of HardKnox, Wayne Gamache stayed involved in music and continued to write and record songs both as an individual and with numerous other artists including Tony. He has his own recording studio “Origin Recording Ltd” and Mansion Road Music Record label in Wallingford CT. As you can see on the discography page of this website Wayne has been very busy.

Tony Rondini took a hiatus from playing out, but continued to keep up his guitar chops. In the 90’s he connected with musicians in the Colchester CT area, playing blues and country rock covers as “Hampton Station”. The band morphed into “Top Secret”, doing mostly rock and blues covers.

In 2006 Tony re-engaged with Wayne, and rekindled the relationship. This sparked Tony’s renewed interest in writing and recording. It wasn’t long before his home studio, Chimney Window Studio, was built.

Today, Tony lives in Austin Texas and is working on a new record scheduled for release sometime in mid-2022. Tony and Wayne began writing new songs and recording, as well as working with vocalist Reena Hart to record and produce her 2013 release “Waiting For You”.

Tony’s debut record “No Use For The Blues” was released in 2015, featuring several songs co-written with Wayne. Grooveyard Records picked up distribution of that record in 2019.

Tony also co-wrote and is featured on guitar for several songs on Wayne’s 2018 release Gamache “Get in the Game”.

Tom Marak took a short break from the music business (33 years). He taught Social Studies and was a teacher for academically gifted students at North Haven High School in CT for 37 years, until his recent retirement. During that time, he coached their Future Problem Solving teams to multiple state championships and Future Problem Solving International Competition championships and awards.

After getting back in touch with Wayne four years ago, he dusted off his old bass and guitars, and got back in the game, as the collaboration was revived.

Fast forward 37 years, Tony, Tom and Wayne began proving Thomas Wolfe wrong and metaphorically “went home again” with the aforementioned Gamache Marak Rondini album HardKnox Redux.

The reunion began as an attempt to preserve previous recordings of our original material, cover songs and gig recordings. We were impressed with how the tunes stood the test of time, but concerned with the condition of the recordings.

The quality left much to be desired and original tapes had badly deteriorated or totally disintegrated, most of our songs survived only on cassette tapes.

To not let this material fade into oblivion, they saved all we could to digital format, before deciding to re-record their original material. And now, and with only a small break in between, the band bring us the excellent HardKnox Reprise.

HardKnox Reprise - YouTube Listening Link