Country Rock/Corona Virus Link "Medical Certainty" - Doctor
Today we grub about in the gnarly roots of the genre, getting calluses from dropping this good homegrown vinyl onto th' old hickory spindle. Notable absentees Hearts & Flowers and The Dillards will get their own posts later.
The International Submarine Band was formed by Gram Parsons at Harvard. Gram had a trust fund and knew all about dustbowl hardship from a photograph he'd seen of poor people. Safe At Home is from '68, when the idea of a return to country roots embodied in the title and cover art was still pretty new. Bonus cuts!
The Blue Velvet Band features pre-Blues Project/Seatrain Richard Greene and Andy Kulberg, featured antecedently at Th' Home of Foam©. Sweet Moments With appeared in '69, same year as Da Boids' Sweetheart. Sweet!
Longbranch/Pennywhistle was Glenn Frey and John David Souther, who went on to form an obscure country-rock combo called "The Eagles" (me neither). To look at the cover of their eponymous album from '70 you'd think they were rolling in trust funds, but these guys grew up in Detroit garage bands, ducking bottles of piss thrown by drunks. So cappuccinos and candlelight came naturally to them.
Nashville West often get ignored, mainly because not many people have heard of them - especially people writing authoritative histories of country rock on the internet. Informally taped in '67, these recordings finally got issued in '76. Familiar names include Clarence Clemons [I think you mean Clarence White - Ed.] and Gene Parsons from later Boids incarnations, and Gib Guilbeau, who played with the Burritos (among others). It's seminal, dude!
So - there you have it - a swell quartet of one-off albums ideal for when unexpected guests drop by. Especially if they don't dig country rock. Fuck 'em - maybe they'll phone ahead next time.
Welcome back lad, you were missed. There's a missing link here:
ReplyDeleteVery nice to have you back. This is a good way to start. I'd love to hear the Blue Velvet Band, I've got the other 3. Nashville West is a killer. well worth a download. Clarence White is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI think Myra's been nipping at the cooking sherry. Makes a mean martini!
ReplyDeleteSmall world - I have the Longbranch Pennywhistle album. Seatrain had a cult following in New Orleans, and played often at the old Warehouse venue (usually as part of the bring a 5'x5' piece of carpet and get in for free booking).
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ReplyDeleteTwang!
Thanks and welcome home. We four and a half guys kept the bar stools warm. Even restocked the liquor cabinet as you were riding home from the airport.
DeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you greatly kind sir.
ReplyDeleteGod to see back, Mr T. Interesting set of albums here. I never understood why Sierra Records gave the Nashville West that title as the band never called themselves Nashville West, they were the Reasons. However they did play regularly at the Nashville West club. For a while, too, they were Gary Paxton's studio band, providing the backing for many of Paxton's productions, as well as making a few tracks themselves, some of which are on the CD Clarence White Tuff & Stringy, Sessions 1966-8. (if anyone would like to hear that album, please ask. I also have a couple or three extra ISB tracks.) For me the highlight of the NW set is Clarence picking 'Ode to Billy Joe' on his prototype pull string, designed and built by Gene Parsons. (One last piece of pedantry - Sweetheart came out in '68.)
ReplyDeleteSweetheart was '68. My False Memory Foam mattress of the mind suffering from absent-mindedness.
DeleteI think this download probably has your three extra ISB tracks.
There is also 'the Russians are coming' instrumental, which was coupled with Truck Driving Man. Plus 2 songs recorded by GP & the Like, which included 3 members of the ISB, so they were the ISB in all but name. One of those songs is November Nights which Peter Fonda recorded and is possibly my favourite GP song. GP & the Like also provided backing at a session by Brandon de Wilde, who apparently had signed a recording contract with RCA, but nothing came out as far as I can tell.
DeleteWelcome home Farq! Don't tell FGW but I nipped a bit of that liquor while I was keeping my stool warm. I think I heard of that "Eagles" band before -- I think James Gang might have been in it? Anyway thanks for the fine Western swing
ReplyDeleteHah! James Gang! I remember him! Matthew Sweet Baby James Gang Of Four Freshmen!
DeleteBlue Velvet Band is a joy. Two of its members, Jim Rooney & Bill Keith, recorded a bluegrass album on Prestige in 1962 titled "Livin' On The Mountain": https://www100.zippyshare.com/v/wheivb9H/file.html
ReplyDeleteSitarswami drifts in on a cloud of patchouli with a superb share!
ReplyDelete(FX: CHEAP ELECTRIC SITAR)
"Premium Access Only" while it may be a credible tourist promotional phrase, is not an invitation to illegal copyright violation. Anyroad, this is a swell lagoon on the Isle. WTF was the name of Don Henley's old band? "How Long" ... (?) Got it around here somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt just means that the link expired because you were too "busy" being somewhere else. Which album(s) do you want?
Delete"How Long" is a John David Souther tune, from his swell '72 solo album.
Those darn Eagles covered "How Long" as the b-side of "Take It Easy", I think, too. May have done a live version in the post-breakup years? Shiloh was the name of the band I couldn't remember last night. They had a few other members who wound up in L.A. with some degree of success over the years, Bowden, Perkins, etc. Um, I don't think I have Blue Velvet Band or Nashville West handy. Are you familiar with the Gosdin Brothers' Sounds Of Goodbye? 11 track LP expanded to 24 songs on CD with significant Gib Guilbeau and Clarence White content. "No Matter Where You Go There You Are" is a good one, and the Ewan MacColl and Donovan songs are nice, too. If I'm ripping, I'll try to dig out that Shiloh thing, too, which, while not a lost classic, may be a little more catchy than labelmate Glenn and J.D.'s folk duo waxing.
ReplyDeleteFalse memory. "Get You In The Mood" was the non-LP b-side of "Take It Easy", apparently written by Frey. Igglez put "How Long" on 2007's Long Road Out Of Eden.
ReplyDeleteShiloh album with Don the singing chicken, Al Perkins, cousins Richard and Michael Bowden and Jim Ed Norman, Amos Records 1969. Produced by Kenny Rogers.
ReplyDeleteWhoda thunk it. The most oblivious proponents of the genre du jour (Kuntry Rawk) on the Foam Isle, The Iggles finally get a mention here. As if these $ellout$ ("Don Henley Must Die" isn't just a Mojo Nixon song title in some households?) never even existed. Til now.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, thanks for the SHILOH!