Can we talk about early-mid70s West Coast post-psych/pop/rock/folk-rock/country-rock?

the edition of breezy stories on rhapsody has "good time charlie" tacked on at the end, i love that song.

this album has jaxon written all over it. flutes, bongos, country-rock, chris hillman, and incongrous ARP synth action:

http://users.skynet.be/fa388247/robertssheis.jpg

I just snagged Mason Proffit's debut for $5, pretty darn good price. At first I thought these guys were pretty cool. Now I'm just blown away by them. They really nailed the epic outlaw/native american/rural christian thing.

both early 70's rick roberts albums are west coast extravaganzas. rick was in the burritos at the end.

from the german westcoast blog:

"Windmills" LP fea. Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Jackson Browne, Al Perkins, Chris Hillman...

"She Is A Song" LP feat. Al Perkins, George Grantham, Joe Walsh, Joe Lala, Chris Hillman, Joe Vitale, Rusty Young...

So both albums feat. ex-members and members from The Eagles, The Byrds, Manassas and Poco.

http://noted.blogs.com/westcoastmusic/2005/03/rick_roberts_wi.html

oops, i meant french westcoast blog. not german.

http://www.forcedexposure.com/product_images/r/RD015LP.JPEG

I also paid the $$$ for this Country Weather anthology. Insane packaging: low budget yet lavish, if that's possible. Pretty good. It's kind of like the rural Bay Area's answer to Obscured by Clouds-era Floyd.

Thanks for the link, Scott.

I also recently bought the Blue Mountain Eagle reissue on Fallout:

http://www.forcedexposure.com/product_images/f/FO2080CD.JPEG

It hasn't blown my mind right away, probably because some of the you-got-me-down-baby lyrics are pretty darn hokey. But the West Coast jamming is pretty convincing. The twin guitarists do smoke, some chunky fuzz.

i hate to break it to you, but there is an ilx-wide ban on all radioactive/fallout bootlegs. they are slime. what they have put people like george brigman through would make you weep:

http://www.nothingexceptional.com/records/radioactive.html

just kidding about the ilx-wide ban, but i tell as many people as i can not to give these people their money. and you should tell any record stores that carry their stuff not to carry it.

anyway, i was looking for a heads hands & feet album cover and i came across this list and talk about weeping!

http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view?list_id=76676&show=100&start=0

what a year. *sigh*. alright, fine, maybe by 1975 the world needed the pistols, but 1973? sheesh, so inventive. so creative. just worlds within worlds within worlds. entire galaxies of sound and inspiration. and that's just one list! and i haven't even heard most of the stuff on that list! i want to hear them all before i die. 1970 to 1973 was some sort of amazing astonishing moment in time. all bets were off! you could do anything! and frequently get someone to pay you to do it!

<i>just kidding about the ilx-wide ban, but i tell as many people as i can not to give these people their money. and you should tell any record stores that carry their stuff not to carry it.</i>

Lots of labels have put lots of musicians through hell, so we might as well only buy stuff on dischord ;)

yeah, but when people repeatedly, over a period of years, beg and plead for a label to stop putting out crappy bootlegs that they will never see a dime from and the label refuses to do it? i don't need to support that. i do what i can. which, admittedly, isn't much.

and most of these people are people who never saw a dime in the first place. and they are getting older. and they often have their own plans to put out their old records. but they don't have the amazing distribution that radioactive/fallout had/has. and they don't want to put out color-copier covers and needle-drop boots.

it's the pro operation that i have a problem with. if someone was lovingly putting out limited heavy vinyl reissues from good sources of out-of-print obscurities for geeks and freeks then i wouldn't get so riled (and i have bought these in the past). or even posting them on blogs for awhile or until someone complained. but it's so much easier now - via the web - to actually find the people involved and actually involve them.

example: a genuine ilm success story:

Laser Pace - Granfalloon (Takoma - 1974) Wow!

All your points are OTM. But in all honesty, if Radioactive puts out something that I can only get from them, then I'm probably going to buy it.

don't know if i brought this up before. but the one and only - i think - album by mike corbett & jay hirsh on atco from 1971 is really good. nice blend of hippie stuff, great harmonies, country twang, folk, folk-rock, and even sitar. and children singing. anyway, it belongs here. if you ever see it cheap, definitely pick it up. great production too. my promo copy sounds awesome.

-- scott seward, Sunday, 6 January 2008 22:09 (3 weeks ago) Link

i'm killing myself trying to find this, w/o success! got outbid on ebay, the stalinists

This one is nice:
http://www.lacoctelera.com/pepsounds/imag/marlin-g.jpg

i have that, but i haven't played it in years.

man .. funny because I was just coming on to ILX to talk about how the biggest revelation of the whole 'San Francisco Nuggets' thing was, for me, COUNTRY WEATHER!

so beautiful ... I immediately ordered the LP, hasn't arrived yet...

also, Salvation!! wow, I guess that LP is $50-plus-er, damn .. :( NEED IT!

There was some awesome Country Weather tracks on one of the Ptolemaic Terrascope compilations. Great great stuff. Is there reissues around?? Donovan Quinn from the Skygreen Leopards is the son of one of those dudes, I believe.

> L.A. Getaway (Atco SD 33-357, 1971)

Been digging this recent find, which surely deserves mention here. The band's kind of a Crazy Horse trio with Joel Scott Hill (Canned Heat), Chris Ethridge (Burritos) and Johnny Barbata (Turtles) doing loose, LOUD rootsiness with cameos by all the cats. Leon Russell & Mac Rebbenack are present, of course, and the highlight is probably a version of the Doctor's Craney Crow, with Clydie King & the girls on vox.

Clarence White, Sneakey Pete, Spooner Oldham, John Sebastian, Larry Knechtal: everybody drops in. What a great, hairy scene L.A. seems to have been in that era, with the fingerprints of the wrecking crew and the Tulsa dudes all over everything.

So soulful and unforced, but really rocking, these guys must have torn it up on the strip or wherever groups like Grin and the Rockets and them were playing in those days.

Is there reissues around??

I don't think their stuff was officially released -- maybe a single at the most. I recently picked up this collection of demos and live tracks. It's pretty sweet. I was actually expecting something a little less Floyd, a little more Dead. But hey, it goes great with Kak. And yes, bassist Dave Carter is Donovan's dad.

At first, Fusetron said it was out of print, but then he tracked one down for me.

http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/pop_albums/9/6/n/f96579rpmn1.jpg

I crank Unicorn's Blue Pine Trees LP nearly everyday. They were the UK's answer to New Riders of the Purple Sage. David Gilmour even sits in on pedal steel, just the way Garcia did with NRPS.

Nice to see some New Riders of the Purple Sage love here - I've been digging their early LPs for the past couple of weeks. I'd never heard 'em before, except for one 'unmemorable' occasion 20 years ago, in a smoke-filled dorm room. (Aside from the New Riders and the Dead, the guy listened to '70s prog and-nothing-but. I tried to turn him onto Trout Mask Replica: He didn't like it much, but thought the cover was hilarious on mushrooms.)

listening to ned doheny debut on asylum. i guess they were hoping for another jackson browne. it's nice though. VERY light and mellow el lay southern/folk/jazz/rock. very california.

been seeking this for some time now..I have his second LP (Hard Candy) which is also great, probably a little slicker than the first...(the David Foster effect)...have only heard "Postcards From Hollywood" from the debut...

on this tip, any love from anybody for this?:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/kisslikejudas/f2868e55.jpg

I seen that Unicorn record raved about elsewhere. Different cover too...

http://ring.cdandlp.com/vendors2/photo_grande/110023839.jpg

Maybe it's a diff Unicorn or a diff record? That cover looks a little too whimsical for Blue Pine Trees. It's def a better artwork, however!

Nice to see some New Riders of the Purple Sage love here - I've been digging their early LPs for the past couple of weeks.

Have you been digging Gypsy Cowboy (sorry for the small jpg)?
http://www.artist-shop.com/wounded/cowboy.jpg
This one is NRPS' most overtly psychedelic -- some murky Floyd vibes. It's also a lot darker than both the debut and Powerglide. Marmaduke is really bummed about the environment, so he submerged everything is hazy sonic stuff.

Naw, that's definitely Blue Pine Trees, that's the cover on my copy! the back cover is TERRIBLE.

I've never checked out Gypsy Cowboy, but I'm a fan of select tracks on s/t & Powerglide. Dirty Business was my drug haze bonghit anthem for a week or so after I first heard it.

Naw, that's definitely Blue Pine Trees, that's the cover on my copy! the back cover is TERRIBLE.

Well, damn, I want that version!

huh, now that i look at it, the back cover of this version (orange label capitol) is the central image from the front cover on yours, with pretty bad band photos and a tracklist gridded down in the middle. Same crummy Unicorn logo as on yers!

I've never checked out Gypsy Cowboy, but I'm a fan of select tracks on s/t & Powerglide. Dirty Business was my drug haze bonghit anthem for a week or so after I first heard it.

Gypsy Cowboy is two, three bong hits past "Dirty Business." If you find a copy, you'll have about three more weeks worth of anthems.

the back cover of this version (orange label capitol) is the central image from the front cover on yours, with pretty bad band photos and a tracklist gridded down in the middle.

What a weird juxtaposition! My cover is cokehead, and yours is straight-up shroomer.

Ooh child, I'll second Just a Stone's Throw Away and not just 'cause it's Featsy. Polished creamy, like all these all-star artifacts, but smart & expansive. "Face of Appalachia" is kind of a prog-country classic, but there are some sweet soul groovers, too. And it's Featsy -- the title number is like their great lost song, except with a girl that can really, really sing.

yeah, Lowell George was all over that record, as was Jackson Browne and Maurice White (!)...

Huh, just now playing that Valerie Carter (thanks for the nudge), and I forgot about the EWF funk stomper on side two!

Plus John Sebastian plays on this record, too, establishing one degree of separation between Verdine White and Ron Palillo.

ooh ooh!
ooh ooh!

Gypsy Cowboy's got "Death And Destruction" - sounds very similar to "Down By The River" (practically the same "two suspended chords" riff for eight minutes) with some remarkably sustained soloing on top, as if Ron Asheton decided to tackle Duane Allman's "Dreams". Yeah!

OK, maybe I'm making it sound better than it is. But it's still pretty good.

man, no gypsy cowboy in stock right now.
am i actually going to have to go look for it at ANOTHER RECORD STORE?

x-post

you're not far off at all. the production on this record is really kind of harsh and blown-out at times. How about the album's feedback intro? These dudes were definitely listening to some Ummagumma.

you know what album i still have never heard? john fogerty's blue ridge rangers album on fantasy. i have a 45 of jambalaya and that's it.

http://bluestormmusic.com/store/images/fogerty-john_blue-ridge-rangersLP.jpg

John Fogerty's Blue Ridge Rangers album is really good roots-rock; I'd go ahead and take the plunge and buy it if I were you. Right now in my listening pile is a Blue Ridge Rangers single that didn't make the album, "You Don't Owe Me"/"Back To The Hills."

Although I don't know if somebody who rocks as hard as Fogerty would be right for this thread. Talking about him on a thread devoted to Poco soundalikes is like being the token greaser in the Haight-Ashbury. But then again, that's kinda what Fogerty was about!

hey, poco could rock!

and there are other rockin' things on here. like my tribute to grinderswitch.

but i put it here just cuzza the whole bluegrass/country vibe he was going for with the rangers record.

and, hey, if you are talking about good early 70's west coast post-psych/pop/rock/folk-rock/country-rock, this album has it all:

http://tokyo.cool.ne.jp/creedence/content2/image/Pendulum.jpg

but everyone knows that already.

hey, poco (and Grinderswitch) could rock!

Not in the rootsy, post-rockabilly-ish sense of the word, like CCR or Commander Cody or the Flamin' Groovies...Poco may have played rock, but Fogerty played rock & roll, if you dig my meaning...

i put it here just cuzza the whole bluegrass/country vibe he was going for with the rangers record.

I can kinda see that.

One thing about early-'70s country-rock is that it put bluegrass in the spotlight - "Dueling Banjos," Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, banjoist Earl Scruggs forming a semi-rock band with his sons, etc..

BTW, any opinions on Southwind (who counted Moon Martin as a member)?

I'm listening to The Blue Ridge Rangers right now, while living on the Blue Ridge! (Well, it's just about eight miles from here.) It makes total sense on this thread. It goes perfect with New Riders, Old & In the Way (Jerry's bluegrass outfit), Clarence White and Muleskinner, etc.

Fogerty is awesome. He plays straight up country guy on the opening track then on the second second he says "fuck that" and starts howling like a gospel fanatic. He then returns to country guy on the third. It's a fun record, with a fresh sound to it.

loved this record when i was a kiddie:

http://pixhost.eu/avaxhome/avaxhome/2007-09-18/thumbnail.jpg

RAVE ON!

can't underestimate the impact that Will The Circle Be Unbroken had on people in the early 70's. Tons of rock fans bought that thing. a lot of people who never really listened to that music.