Good comes from worlds colliding

Las Vegans do the mental sorting all the time. There's the Strip and the "real city." The tourist scene vs. local hangs.

These perceptions also carry deep into show business. Shows for tourists, shows for locals. Veteran acts who play here -- some for years on end -- but come here with one job to do and never see the city beyond the golf course.

The Orleans is a second home for Graham Russell, half of the veteran soft-rock duo Air Supply. During his days here, he would slip into the theater and sit at the grand piano "to compose, or just to keep my piano chops up. The grand piano's there, and I have it all to myself for five or six hours. I've always done that."

Lately, we've been hearing more about local recording studios -- particularly with high-profile artists at the Palms -- turning such downtime into productive days.

On the "real" side of town, you also find all manner of up-and-coming acts who hope to be the city's next Killers or Panic At The Disco. One of them, Frankie Moreno, already occupies a unique perch by playing high-octane originals in a casino lounge setting at the Golden Nugget.

Seldom did these worlds collide. But all three elements came together recently after a mutual musician friend kept encouraging Russell to go see Moreno at the Nugget. "I was blown away," he remembers. "It wasn't what I thought it was going to be for a lounge in Las Vegas."

Russell and Moreno became friends and started writing songs together. The collaboration continued when Moreno filled in for the group's regular keyboardist on a tour.

When it came time to record, Russell and Air Supply partner Russell Hitchcock were tipped to the new Odds On Records, a one-stop recording studio and independent label.

"It was the best studio I've ever seen, and I've been in them all over the world," Russell says. "They've got all the gear there. We don't have to move any equipment. We can just go there at 10 in the morning and track three or four songs."

Odds On's Ted Joseph was eager to back Air Supply's new "Mumbo Jumbo," the duo's first disc of new material in eight years. He didn't have to "break" an act so much as reintroduce one. "It's a tremendous leg up to have a brand name," he says.

Now "Dance With Me," one of the five songs Russell co-wrote with Moreno, has Air Supply on Billboard's adult-contemporary chart for the first time since 1993.

"Together we're doing some great things," Russell says of the three-way collision with Moreno and Odds On.

"We're in a great place," he says of Air Supply, and one can assume he means that at least a bit literally.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.