Dickey Betts & Great Southern - Dickey Betts & Great Southern 1977

Three years after the issue of his landmark solo recording, Highway Call (and countless inbred brawls and unholy wars among the Allman Brothers), guitarist, singer, and songwriter Dickey Betts released the debut by his "other" band, Great Southern. Attempting to capture the loose, easy feel of Highway Call and combine it with the more blues-driven sound of the Allmans, Betts was largely successful though the record does suffer a tad from overly slick production. Evident from "Out to Get Me," the very first track, is Betts' trademark slide guitar burning a hole through the center of the mix. The undertone of the album is the shuffle, both country and blues, aided in large part by Topper Price's harmonica and the able second guitar of Dan Toler. But the feel is all Betts. He stretches out the stinging boogie of "Run Gypsy Run," with dual leads, a killer pre-verse riff, and a solid "Ramblin Man"-style melodic line in the heart of his blues. Perhaps the hinge piece on the album in on its third track, "Sweet Virginia" (not a cover of the Rolling Stones' track). Here, Betts' slide work is easily and lilting as it undergirds a sleepy country tune with a killer backbeat. Nostalgia, or at least the previous, is the backbone of Betts' sentiment as his vice rings through the guitars and rhythm section with conviction and a sureness that only comes out of the finest country-rock music (think Creedence Clearwater meets the Allmans). Ultimately, this album, with its funky New Orleans basslines and second-line percussions, is another restless country-soul set from Betts. And though more guitar driven than Highway Call (fiddle god Vassar Clements is not Betts' foil here), its songs hold as much soul and aplomb if not the same deeply held convictions that made the previous album the classic it is. Nonetheless, Great Southern is a very fine album that despite its polish holds a wealth of fine songs and truly astonishing playing within its grooves. AMG.

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Al Wilson - Show and Tell 1973

Best remembered for the number one pop hit "Show and Tell," soul singer Al Wilson was born June 19, 1939 in Meridian, Mississippi. From childhood forward he was singing professionally, and by the age of 12 was leading his own spiritual quartet and singing in the church choir, even performing covers of country & western hits as circumstances dictated. While he was in high school, Wilson and his family relocated to San Bernardino, California, where he worked odd jobs as a mail carrier, a janitor, and an office clerk, in addition to teaching himself to play drums. After graduation he spent four years touring with Johnny Harris & the Statesmen before joining the U.S. Navy and singing with an enlisted men's chorus. After a two-year military stint, Wilson settled in Los Angeles, touring the local nightclub circuit before joining the R&B vocal group the Jewels; from there he landed with the Rollers, followed by a stint with the instrumental combo the Souls. In 1966, Wilson signed with manager Marc Gordon, who quickly scored his client an a cappella audition for Johnny Rivers. The "Secret Agent Man" singer not only signed Wilson to his Soul City imprint, but also agreed to produce the sessions that yielded the 1968 R&B smash "The Snake." The minor hit "Do What You Gotta Do" appeared that same year, but Wilson then largely disappeared from sight until 1973, when he issued the platinum-selling Weighing In -- the album's success was spurred by the shimmering "Show and Tell," a Johnny Mathis castoff that sold well over a million copies. "The La La Peace Song," released in 1974, proved another major hit, and two years later, "I've Got a Feeling We'll Be Seeing Each Other Again" peaked at number three on the R&B chart. With 1979's "Count the Days" Wilson scored his final chart hit, however, and he spent the next two decades touring clubs and lounges. In 2001 he re-recorded his classic hits for the album Spice of Life. Kidney failure took his life on April 21, 2008. AMG.

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Billy Joe Shaver - Old Five and Dimers Like Me 1973

Billy Joe Shaver slipped onto the recording scene very quietly in 1973. He was already heralded a fine songwriter by Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings, but even they'd recorded one or two songs of his up to that point. After the issue of this debut album, however, the floodgates opened for Shaver with the aforementioned trio and Johnny Cash himself recording Billy Joe's songs -- a trend that continued 30 years later. Old Five and Dimers Like Me reveals a songwriter at the height of his power, a songwriter who undersells his case via quiet melodic music steeped in Texas country, folk, and the blues. While the title track is best known and the most often recorded (Waylon based his entire Honky Tonk Heroes around that track as the basis for an album of Shaver's tunes), each of this CD's 14 songs are gems. "Fit to Kill and Going Out in Style" became an anthem of the outlaw movement, and "Black Rose" echoes the Band's "Cripple Creek" with its funky country shuffle. The old-time honky tonk blues of "Played the Game Too Long" features a Dixieland horn section in the middle, and "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me" became David Allan Coe's theme after "Long Haired Redneck." And "Low Down Freedom" is the most poignantly written song about what it costs others when a man decides he needs to be free. Shaver was a study in contradictions on this album and proved to be so in life as well. He was a big man on the cover, a rough and tumble farmer who liked his music hot and simple and wrote words like a poet laureate. His performances of his own songs have been derided in the past because of the supposed limitations in his voice. But though he may not produce the performance drama that some of his peers can, his versions of these songs are far more poignant than any cover version of them. Shaver has always possessed an elegant and humble sense of dignity; it's on this recording, and on each one that followed. Old Five and Dimers Like Me is a masterpiece not only as a genesis for outlaw country, but of American songwriting at its very best. AMG.

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The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue 1976

The Rolling Stones recorded Black and Blue while auditioning Mick Taylor's replacement, so it's unfair to criticize it, really, for being longer on grooves and jams than songs, especially since that's what's good about it. Yes, the two songs that are undeniable highlights are "Memory Motel" and "Fool to Cry," the album's two ballads and, therefore, the two that had to be written and arranged, not knocked out in the studio; they're also the ones that don't quite make as much sense, though they still work in the context of the record. No, this is all about groove and sound, as the Stones work Ron Wood into their fabric. And the remarkable thing is, apart from "Hand of Fate" and "Crazy Mama," there's little straight-ahead rock & roll here. They play with reggae extensively, funk and disco less so, making both sound like integral parts of the Stones' lifeblood. Apart from the ballads, there might not be many memorable tunes, but there are times that you listen to the Stones just to hear them play, and this is one of them. AMG.

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Tim Buckley - Happy Sad 1969

Easily Tim Buckley's most underrated album, Happy Sad was another departure for the eclectic Southern California-based singer/songwriter. After the success of the widely acclaimed Goodbye and Hello, Buckley mellowed enough to explore his jazz roots. Sounding like Fred Neil's Capitol-era albums, Buckley and his small, acoustic-based ensemble weave elegant, minimalist tapestries around the six Buckley originals. The effect is completely mesmerizing. On "Buzzin' Fly" and "Strange Feelin'," you are slowly drawn into Buckley's intoxicating vision. The extended opus in the middle of the record, "Love From Room 109," is an intense, complex composition. Lovingly under-produced by Jerry Yester and Zal Yanovsky, this is one of the finest records of the late '60s. AMG.

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Steve Young - Rock Salt & Nails 1969

Rock Salt and Nails is a highly regarded cult country-rock-folk record, in part because some of the supporting musicians are highly regarded pioneers of the form: Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman, and Gene Clark all appear on the album. While it is not among the very best of such late-'60s hybrids, it is pretty good, though too low-key to command the kind of wide interest (by cult standards, anyway) that someone like Clark or Parsons does. Steve Young has an unusually convincing reedy voice, never overdoing the melodramatics yet establishing a dramatic atmosphere that admits hints of blues, soul, and swamp pop. When distant, mournful strings are added to his more anguished and somber songs, like "Seven Bridges Road," "Holler in the Swamp," and "Kenny's Song," there's an effective multi-dimensionality rare in early country-rock. Other songs, particularly the covers of old country tunes, are less striking. It's an interesting release, though, that's quite rewarding for fans of more adventurous country-rock fusions. AMG.

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Steve Hillage - Green 1978

On Steve Hillage's 1978 release Green, the underground prog rock fan favorite issues more of his trademark thinking-man's music. Fans of mid- to late-'70s Pink Floyd will want to check this album out, since it possesses many of the same musical qualities, due to the fact that it was produced by Floyd drummer Nick Mason, along with Hillage. Although not as consistent as some of his other albums, it certainly has its moments. Hillage's recurring sci-fi influence is still felt in his music, especially on such tracks as "Sea Nature," "UFO Over Paris," and "Unidentified (Flying Being)." Hillage uses the same band that appeared on his Motivation Radio album, which helps make Hillage's twisted songs even better (like his other albums, the musicianship is top-notch). Besides comparisons to Floyd, the album's music is also similar to David Bowie's late-'70s experimental electronic phase (check out the track "Crystal City," with vocals almost identical to Bowie). AMG.

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African Music Machine - Black Water Gold 1974

The African Music Machine was an eight-piece funk outfit from New Orleans led by bassist/songwriter Louis Villery. They got their start as a house band for the Jewel/Paula label axis, playing on records by the likes of Fontella Bass, Little Johnny Taylor, Roscoe Robinson, Ted Taylor, Tommie Young, and singer/producer Bobby Patterson, among others. From 1972-1974, they cut several of their own singles for the Patterson-owned Soul Power subsidiary. Most of their work was done in a heavy, James Brown vein, sometimes with a bit of Creole influence mixed in. Their original 45s -- including "Black Water Gold," "Tropical," and "The Dapp" -- later became highly prized items among funk collectors, fetching outlandish prices; a compilation of singles, also titled Black Water Gold, was reissued in 2000. In 2001, Villery assembled a new version of the African Music Machine and released an eponymous album on Singular. AMG.

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The Fugs - The Fugs First Album 1965

A loping, ridiculous, and scabrous release, the Fugs' debut mashed everything from folk and beat poetry to rock and rhythm & blues -- all with a casual disregard for sounding note perfect, though not without definite goals in mind. Actually compiled from two separate sessions originally done for Folkways Records, and with slightly different lineups as a result, it's a short but utterly worthy release that pushed any number of 1964-era buttons at once (and could still tick off plenty of people). Sanders produced the sessions in collaboration with the legendary Harry Smith, who was able to sneak the collective onto Folkways' accounts by describing them as a "jug band," and it's not a far-off description. A number of songs sound like calm-enough folk-boom fare, at least on casual listening, though often with odd extra touches like weirdly muffled drums or out of nowhere whistles and chimes. Others, meanwhile, are just out there -- thus, the details of the perfect "Supergirl." Then there's "Boobs a Lot," the post-toke/acid lament "I Couldn't Get High," and the pie-in-the-face to acceptable standards of the time, "Slum Goddess." Throughout it all, the Fugs sound like they're having a perfectly fun time; the feeling is loose, ragged, but right, and while things may be sloppy around the edges, often that's totally intentional. Certainly little else could explain the random jamming and rhythmic chanting/shouting on "Swinburne Stomp." Good as the original album is, the CD version is what any serious fan needs to find, thanks to the inclusion of 11 bonus tracks. Some come from the original sessions, including the signature tune "We're the Fugs" and "The Ten Commandments," while others appear from various live jams. Then there's the self-explanatory "In the Middle of Their First Recording Session the Fugs Sign the Worst Contract Since Leadbelly's." AMG.

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Joe South - Joe South 1971

Perhaps because he had so much lost time to make up for making up for when he finally emerged as a featured artist after lurking behind the scenes as a songwriter and session musician, Joe South was working at a white-hot pace in the late 1960s, with three fine if slightly erratic albums emerging one after the other. It's perhaps unsurprising, then, that his fourth, 1971's Joe South, was both less energetic and less impressive than what had preceded it. It's still a worthy record with his expected (and perhaps unsurpassed) knack for combining rock, country, and soul, though it marked no less than the third appearance in four albums of "Birds of a Feather." Certainly the most renowned track is "Rose Garden," a number three pop hit in the hands of country singer Lynn Anderson, though South's version is unsurprisingly funkier and more relaxed. At other points South sounds rather like Elvis Presley might have in the early '70s had Elvis been able to write songs and been less of a showboat. But while the songs are OK (and, in the case of "Rose Garden," quite a bit more than that), there was nothing aside from "Rose Garden" as exciting and striking as the best of what South had done in the late '60s. AMG.

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Gene Clark - No Other 1974

Upon its 1974 release, Gene Clark's No Other was rejected by most critics as an exercise in bloated studio excess. It was also ignored by Asylum, which had invested $100,000 in recording it. A considerable sum at the time, it was intended as a double album, but the label refused to release it as such. Ultimately, it proved a commercial failure that devastated Clark, and he never recovered. Though Clark didn't live to see it, No Other has attained cult status as a visionary recording that employs every available studio means to illustrate the power in Clark's mercurial songwriting. He and producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye entered Village Recorders in L.A. with an elite cast that included Michael Utley and Jesse Ed Davis, Butch Trucks, Lee Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Joe Lala, Chris Hillman, Danny "Kooch" Kortchmar, Howard Buzzy Feiten, and Stephen Bruton. Clark's vocalists included Clydie King, Venetta Fields, Shirley Matthews, the Eagles' Timothy B. Schmidt, and Claudia Lennear. These musicians all brought their best to the material. As a whole, No Other is a sprawling, ambitious work that seamlessly melds country, folk, jazz-inflected-gospel, urban blues, and breezy L.A. rock in a song cycle that reflects the mid-'70s better than anything from the time, yet continues to haunt the present with its relevance There are no edges on the set, even in the labyrinthine, multi-tracked "No Other," that juxtaposes guitar-driven psychedelia and out jazz saxophones and flutes with lush vocal harmonies. Even its tougher tracks, such as "Strength of Strings," that echoes Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand," melodically delivers an alluring, modal, Eastern-tinged bridge adorned by slide guitar wizardry. In the textured darkness of "Silver Raven," Clark's falsetto vocal is framed by an alluring synth, and muted bassline, and is embraced by a chorus that rivals CSNY's, making for a heartbreaking yet blissed-out country-folk song. "From a Silver Phial," as haunting and beautiful as it is, is one of the strangest songs Clark ever penned. Its anti-drug references are especially odd as this is one of the more coked-out recordings to come from L.A. during the era. The final two cuts, "The True One" and "Lady of the North" (the latter co-written with Doug Dillard), are the only two pieces on the disc that mirror where Clark had come from musically, but as they wind around the listener, even these tracks are far bigger than mere country-rock tunes, offering glissando passages of pedal steel and piano ostinatos that actually create narrative movement for the lyrics to turn on. No Other's songs lend themselves to open-ended performances in the studio. Because of his spacious yet always beautifully centered compositional style, they are well-suited to Kaye's use of multi-tracked instruments and vocals, ambient sonic echoes, and textures that surround them. Clark's unlikely classic, No Other is continually rediscovered by succeeding generations.AMG.

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James Gang - Yer Album 1969

The James Gang's debut LP, Yer' Album, was very much a first record and very much a record of its time. The heavy rock scene of the period was given to extensive jamming, and four tracks ran more than six minutes each. The group had written some material, but they were still something of a cover band, and the disc included their extended workouts on Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" and the Yardbirds' "Lost Woman," the latter a nine-minute version complete with lengthy guitar, bass, and drum solos. But in addition to the blues rock there were also touches of pop and progressive rock, mostly from Walsh who displayed a nascent sense of melody, not to mention some of the taste for being a cutup that he would display in his solo career. Walsh's "Take a Look Around" must have made an impression on Pete Townshend during the period before the album's release when the James Gang was opening for the Who since Townshend borrowed it for the music he was writing for the abortive Lifehouse follow-up to Tommy. If "Wrapcity (i.e., Rhapsody) in English," a minute-long piano and strings interlude, seems incongruous in retrospect, recall that this was an eclectic era. But the otherwise promising "Fred," which followed, broke down into a pedestrian jazz routine, suggesting that the band was trying to cram too many influences onto one record and sometimes into one song. Nevertheless, they were talented improvisers, as the open-ended album closer, Jerry Ragavoy and Mort Shuman's "Stop," made clear. After ten minutes, Szymczyk faded the track out, but Walsh was still going strong. Yer' Album contained much to suggest that the James Gang, in particular its guitarist, had a great future, even if it was more an album of performances than compositions. AMG.

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Atlantis - Atlantis 1973

Atlantis' debut album follows firmly in the footsteps of the earlier Frumpy, with one major difference: shorter songs. Just three of the seven tracks break the five-minute barrier, only one -- the defiantly Deep Purple jazz-rocky "Living at the End of Time" -- approaches ten. But Atlantis rises regardless. The closing ballad, "Words of Love," essentially predicts Heart's entire career, while the funky overtures of "Get Up," colliding with some of Inga Rumpf's finest, gutsiest vocals, would have made a sensational FM radio favorite. The latter portion of "Living at the End of Time," once the band drops the jazz-rock elitism, is spellbindingly fairyland folky, and both "Rock 'n' Roll Preacher" and "Maybe It's Useless" show a Free influence that is quite spectacular. And that, if there is a downside, is where the disappointments lie. At their best, Frumpy's forte lay in their ability to fly off at monstrous tangents without ever losing sight of such notions as melody, cohesion, and discipline. The tangents are less pronounced here, the exploration is less bold and forthright. But the performances are as strong as ever, the songwriting is even stronger, and Inga Rumpf draws out some of her strongest vocals yet to power the band to some brilliant highs. AMG.

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The Strawbs - Strawbs 1969

The Strawbs had done an album with Sandy Denny handling many of the vocals, and had also done quite a bit of unreleased recordings (now on the double CD Preserves Uncanned) prior to 1969's Strawbs. This is still their first proper album, but their wealth of prior live and studio experience most likely helped make it sound more confident and fully formed than many a debut effort. The group distinguished itself among the burgeoning school of British folk-rockers by delivering bittersweet folk-rock with a storytelling flavor. Dave Cousins' songwriting was on the sober and occasionally over-earnest side, but nonetheless the record was strong and alluring enough to immediately establish the Strawbs as one of the better first-generation U.K. folk-rock outfits. Some of these songs had been around for a while, as the presence of some of them on Preserves Uncanned and Sandy Denny & the Strawbs attests. However, the group took big strides from bare-bones folk-rock in the studio by dressing these in arrangements -- sometimes with light recorder, choral backup vocals, and orchestration -- that gave the Elizabethan melodies a pastoral, quasi-classical feel at times, without losing sight of an acoustic base. "The Man Who Called Himself Jesus" and "Where Is This Dream of Your Youth" are among their best and most ambitious songs, and even if the compositions can sometimes take themselves too seriously, the music's never less than respectable. AMG.

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James Mason - Rhythm Of Life 1977

Jazz-funk fans, believe the hype: James Mason's Rhythm of Life is every bit the overlooked classic its small but fanatical cult following has built it up to be. Smoothly soulful (but not slick) and spiritually uplifting throughout, the album's blend of funky fusion and progressive R&B is hardly the stuff purist dreams are made of, but anyone who loves the deep grooves of Donald Byrd or Mason's former employer, Roy Ayers, will immediately understand why this is considered a masterpiece in acid jazz circles. Breezy ballads and ferocious up-tempo groovers alike benefit from Mason's sure sense of songcraft and his knack for full-bodied arrangements. Mason plays all the guitars and loads of vintage synths (two different ARPs and Fender Rhodes electric piano among them), so he's largely responsible for the instrumental meat of every track. And though he's a strong soloist when he chooses, his focus is more on creating luxurious textures and working the grooves. And work them he does -- the faster tracks are amazingly driving for the jazz-funk genre, taken at tempos that would be fast even for R&B or rock, with lots of frantically slapped bass from Gene Torres. Clarice Taylor's vocals are far more soulful than the charmingly amateurish jazz-funk norm; what's more, the songs -- all but one co-written by Ninoska Escobar -- aren't just perfunctory groove vehicles, but feel more substantially structured than is typical for the genre. At least four -- "Sweet Power Your Embrace," "Free," "Funny Girl," and "Slick City" -- have become rare-groove club standards, and the title cut is an absolute monster. Records like Rhythm of Life -- catchy, funky, richly textured, and utterly joyous -- are a huge reason the acid jazz movement came into being; since their virtues aren't as prized by hardcore jazzers, they might otherwise be consigned to oblivion. Thankfully, this one was rescued. AMG.

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