American rock band Desert Dragon has been making a name for themselves with their multi-rock sound which includes a mix of classic rock, blues rock, country rock, and progressive rock. The band is made up of vocalist Keith St. John (Montrose) with Greg Patnode and Brent Barker on guitars, Rick Brandt on bass, Lenny Roberto on drums, and Michael Smith on keyboards.
Desert Dragon vocalist St John is well known in the rock world for his time in Montrose, Lynch Mob, and currently Kingdom Come, Burning Rain, and the Raiding the Rock Vault production on the Las Vegas strip. St John cowrote and coproduced the This Side of Heaven album with Patnode and Smith and considers this record to be "au natural and straight from the heart."
Since their debut in 2011, the Los Angeles-based band has independently released the EP Desolation which was produced by the legendary Ron Nevison (Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Faces, Heart, Lynyrd Skynyrd) and featured Billboard charting singles "Darkness Shines" and "Miles Away".
For their album Before The Storm, the band worked with Producer/Mixer James "Jimbo" Barton (Queensryche, Rush, Metallica) and Ralph Patlan (Megadeth, Michael Schenker, Flotsam and Jetsam) with the song "Save My World" garnering Best Rock Song at the Malibu Music Awards.
This Side Of Heaven is their first with vocalist Keith St. John. Also, on the album violinist Adel Eskander (Page and Plant No Quarter Tour) lends his talents to the song "Southside of Heaven". The album features ten new songs that highlight a different side of the band's talents on every track, while they salute good old fashioned rock.
Desert Dragon has also toured relentlessly including an opening slot for Blue Oyster Cult and a capacity show at SXSW. When asked about the band name Patnode explains, "Desert comes from the Judas Priest song Desert Plains and Dragon was inspired by Jimmy Page's iconic dragon pants".