Zephyr with Tommy Bolin - Art's Bar and Grill, Boulder, CO, 5-2-1973

Mere minutes ago, I posted a concert of Zephyr with Tommy Bolin performed at the Ebbets Field venue in Denver, Colorado, in May, 1973. I'm posting this similar one immediately thereafter because I actually strongly recommend you listen to this one instead, unless you're a die-hard fan and want both. The issue is sound quality. The two concerts are similar, but this one sounds much better.

I gave a lot of explanation to the Ebbets Field concert I just posted that also applies here. But I guess I'll give a quick summary for those who didn't read the write-up for that album. The band Zephyr was formed in 1968 in the Boulder, Colorado area. Candy Givens was a charismatic lead singer and Tommy Bolin was an exceptionally talented lead guitarist. Bolin left the band in 1971 after two albums. The band continued without him, releasing another album in 1972.

Then, in the summer of 1973, Bolin had some free time between commitments for his band at the time, the James Gang. So he agreed to play a handful of reunion concerts with Zephyr, just in the Boulder and Denver area. This concert was professionally recorded, and officially released in 1997 under the name "Zephyr Live at Art's Bar and Grill May 2, 1973." As I write this in 2026, it's the only officially released Zephyr live album.

So, since this has been officially released, why am I posting it? That goes against my usual policy. It's because there was a serious flaw to the official release: the lead vocals were so low in the mix, they were almost inaudible. Here's a fan review I found of this album at the Discogs website, that sums up the problem: "Great example of Tommy Bolin's guitar playing. Amazing. Only issue is the mix has poor vocals. Great singer but can't hear her."

I guess in 1997 when this album was released, that problem would have been very difficult to fix. But now, anybody can fix it with ease, due to massive improvements in audio editing technology. So I fixed it. I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the instruments. Then I drastically boosted the volume of the vocals, and then merged the two parts back together. The result is like night and day, in my opinion. Before, the album was pretty much unlistenable, unless you treated it as an all instrumental album. But now it sounds just fine, like a well recorded live album from that time period.

So that's why I'm posting this, despite it being officially released. Also, I checked, and that release is out of print. 

If you compare this with the Ebbets Field concert recording, there are some songs performed on that one not performed here, and vice versa. As I said, if you're a big fan, you might want to hear both. But if you only want one, I would definitely make it this one, due to the sound quality. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 Just Warming Up [Instrumental] (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
02 Cross the River (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
03 Boom-Ba-Boom [Instrumental] (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
04 Somebody Listen (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
05 Huna Buna (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
06 The Creator Has a Master Plan (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
07 Sail On (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
08 Crazy 'bout You (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
09 Goin' Home (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
10 Hard Chargin' Woman (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZP8XjRwQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/rbqOyTHmotcCgfx/file

In 1970, Zephyr appeared on a local PBS TV show, simply called "The Show." Video footage of that performance survives. So I took a screenshot from that video for the cover image. Candy Givens is seen as the lead singer, with Tommy Bolin on guitar behind her.

Zephyr with Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-24-1973

Before I say anything else, I want to warn you about the sound quality here. A big reason I've been prioritizing the posting of concerts from the Ebbets Field venue is due to the consistently high sound quality. But this is an exception. This sounds markedly worse than any other recording from this venue that I've posted so far. I'm guessing it's an audience boot instead of a radio broadcast. So listener beware.

The main draw for this concert is lead guitarist Tommy Bolin, whose reputation has continued to grow since his untimely death in 1976. He was a member of the band Zephyr when that band started out in 1968. The main appeal of the band was that it paired Bolin's obvious guitar talents with the singing of Candy Givens, a woman whose singing had similarities to the singing of Janis Joplin. Zephyr put out albums in 1969 and 1971. They toured the U.S., but they didn't manage to get a commercial breakthrough. In 1971, just after the band's second album was released, Bolin left the band, due to growing personality conflicts in the band. The rest of the band continued without him, releasing another album in 1972.

In the summer of 1973, Bolin was at loose ends. He had joined the band the James Gang early in 1973. But that band had some time off between recording an album and when it would be released in September. Bolin was living in Boulder. Someone came up with the idea of Bolin reuniting with Zephyr for a few concerts just in the Boulder and Denver area. It would just be for fun, and to make a little money, since he was already committed to being a part of the James Gang. So this was one of a very small number of shows. I'm calling it "Zephyr with Tommy Bolin," because while he had been a member, he was no longer a member. 

As it turned out, Zephyr fizzled out shortly after these reunion shows. The band got back together in 1976 and continued onward. However, it only released one more album, in 1982. Then the band ended for good in 1984, when lead singer Candy Givens died of a drug and alcohol overdose.

I was disappointed that this concert doesn't sound very good. I tried to do some audio editing to improve things, but I could only do so much with the raw material. Then I noticed that another one of these reunion shows was actually released as an official live album, the only live album from the band. That release has the informative title "Zephyr Live at Art's Bar and Grill May 2, 1973." As you can see, that took place just three weeks prior to this concert, at a small club in Boulder.

So I gave that album a listen. The sound quality is much better than this one. But there was a fatal flaw: the lead vocals were extremely low in the mix, almost inaudible. So I decided to fix that, and then post that album too. I strongly recommend you actually listen to that album instead of this one, due to the drastically different sound quality. But, since I'm posting all the Ebbets Field concerts I can get my hands on, I'm posting this one too. If you're a real die-hard fan of Zephyr and/or Tommy Bolin, you might want both.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Zephyr, though it's not very thorough. As I write this in May 2026, it doesn't even mention the 1973 reunion with Bolin.

Zephyr (band) - Wikipedia  

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Cross the River (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
02 The Locomotion (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
03 Lay Down and Die (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
04 Rock Me, Baby (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
05 Going Home (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
06 The Creator Has a Master Plan (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)
07 Sail On (Zephyr with Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/59iXMozo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/1zqAVNC1EVqMtR9/file

The cover image has major quality issues, just like the music for this album. But I chose it over other options because this is an actual photo taken inside the Ebbets Field venue! It's the first one I've found that fits with one of the albums I want to post. That's Candy Givens playing harmonica with a bandana on her head, and Tommy Bolin on guitar. 

I could have tried to improve this image in various ways, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it since the album has issues anyway.