Orion The Hunter

Orion the Hunter was a splinter group from the multi-platinum band Boston that briefly surfaced in 1984 and broke up after the release of a single eponymously titled album on Epic and a quick national tour with Aerosmith. The group was the brainchild of onetime Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau, who’d left the band in 1980, and included bassist Bruce Smith, former Heart drummer Michael DeRosier, and singer Fran Cosmo, who ironically later became a member of the band Boston. The late Boston singer Brad Delp also helped out on the project, doing background vocals and co-writing some of the songs. The band demonstrated that Goudreau was a strong guitarist on his own, not just a background player to Boston mastermind Tom Scholz, and its sole album was a sturdy collection of AOR rock right for the era. The tune “So You Ran” even garnered middling chart success. Since the band was born during that long drought between Boston’s 1978 sophomore effort Don’t Look Back and 1986’s Third Stage, there was natural interest and curiosity about the group. But Goudreau paid a heavy price for the outing. He never recorded with Boston again.
(by Dean Johnson)