Little Feat - Live At the Santa Monica Civic 1973

Though they had all the trappings of a Southern-fried blues band, Little Feat were hardly conventional. Led by songwriter/guitarist Lowell George, Little Feat were a wildly eclectic band, bringing together strains of blues, R&B, country, and rock & roll. The bandmembers were exceptionally gifted technically and their polished professionalism sat well with the slick sounds coming out of Southern California during the '70s. However, Little Feat were hardly slick -- they had a surreal sensibility, as evidenced byGeorge's idiosyncratic songwriting, which helped the band earn a cult following among critics and musicians. Though the band earned some success on album-oriented radio, the group was derailed after George's death in 1979. Little Feat re-formed in the late '80s, and while they were playing as well as ever, they lacked the skewed sensibility that made them cult favorites. Nevertheless, their albums and tours were successful, especially among American blues-rock fans.

However, Little Feat weren't conceived as a straight-ahead blues-rock group. Their founding members,Lowell George (vocals, guitar, slide guitar) and Roy Estrada (bass), were veterans of Frank Zappa'sMothers of Invention. George had a long musical career before joining the Mothers. As a child, he and his brother Hampton performed a harmonica duet on television's Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour. During high school, he learned how to play flute, which led to him appearing as an oboist and baritone saxophonist on several Frank Sinatra recording sessions. He formed the folk-rock group the Factory with drummer Richie Hayward in 1965. Before disbanding, the Factory made some recordings for Uni Records, but the tapes sat unreleased until the 1990s. Following the group's demise,George joined the Mothers of Invention, where he met Estrada. Zappa convinced George to form his own band after hearing "Willin'," but the guitarist was reluctant to begin a band until he participated in a brief Standells reunion.

After a struggle with liver disease, founding Feat memberRichie Hayward passed away from pneumonia and lung disease on August 12, 2010. Little Feat continued to tour after his death, enlisting Gabe Ford as their new drummer. The first album of new material from Little Feat in nine years,Rooster Rag, appeared in 2012After spending seven years as sidemen, Payne, Barrére,Hayward, Gradney, and Clayton re-formed Little Feat in 1988, adding vocalist/guitarist Craig Fuller and guitarist Fred Tackett. The heavily anticipated Let It Roll was released in 1988 to mixed reviews, but it went gold. Each of the group's subsequent reunion albums -- Representing the Mambo(1989), Shake Me Up (1991), and Ain't Had Enough Fun(1995) -- sold progressively less, but the band remained a popular concert attraction. On the latter album, the band traded the strongly Lowell George-esque voice of Fuller for female singer Shaun Murphy; this lineup went on to releaseUnder the Radar in 1998 and Chinese Work Songs in 2000. Numerous compilations and live recordings peppered the next few years, followed by 2003's Kickin' It at the Barn, the group's first album for its own indie label, Hot Tomato Records. Rocky Mountain Jam arrived in early 2007. Join the Band, a collection of duets with Feat friends and fans, followed in 2008 on Proper Records.Though the band was earning a cult following, several members of the group were growing frustrated by George's erratic behavior and increasing drug use. Following 1974'sFeats Don't Fail Me Now, Barrére and Payne became the band's main songwriters and they were primarily responsible for the jazzy fusions of 1975's The Last Record Album. Little Feat continued in that direction on Time Loves a Hero(1977), the double-live album Waiting for Columbus (1978), and Down on the Farm (1979). Frustrated with the band's increasingly improvisational and jazzy nature, Georgerecorded a solo album, Thanks I'll Eat It Here, which was released in 1979. Following its release, George announced that Little Feat had broken up, and he embarked on a solo tour. Partway through the tour, he died of an apparent heart attack. Down on the Farm was released after his death, as was the rarities collection Hoy-Hoy! (1981).George and Estrada formed Little Feat in 1969 withHayward and keyboardist Billy Payne. Neither their eponymous first album in 1971 nor 1972's Sailin' Shoes were commercial successes, despite strong reviews. As a result, the group temporarily disbanded, with Estrada leaving music to become a computer programmer. When the group reconvened later in 1972, he was replaced by New Orleans musician Kenny Gradney. In its second incarnation, Little Feat also featured guitarist Paul Barrére and percussionistSam Clayton, who gave the music a funkier feeling, as demonstrated by 1973's Dixie Chicken. The band toured heavily behind the record, building a strong following in the South and on the East Coast. Nevertheless, the group remained centered in Los Angeles, since the members did a lot of session work on the side. AMG.

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Copperhead - Lonesome Trails (Studio Outtakes) 1973

Copperhead was a band organized by guitarist John Cipollina after he left Quicksilver Messenger Service in 1970. Cipollina, who had been a member of Quicksilver since its formation and whose lead guitar playing was its signature sound, had grown increasingly dissatisfied after the return of band founder Dino Valenti from a prison term, when the group grew larger and he found he had less space to play. He had also grown increasingly interested in playing sessions, which the band discouraged. The early days of Copperhead were casual, with the group consisting of a loose aggregation of people playing gigs with Cipollina. Eventually it coalesced into a quartet consisting of Cipolliana on lead guitar; Gary Philippet on vocals, second guitar, and organ; Jim McPherson on vocals, bass, and piano; and David Weber on drums. The group was initially signed to the Just Sunshine label run by Michael Lang, one of the organizers of Woodstock. But in 1972 it was signed to a major-label record deal by Clive Davis at Columbia and recorded its debut album, Copperhead, released in the spring of 1973. Unfortunately, Davis was fired from Columbia shortly after the album's release, an action that doomed any developing band that had been signed under his aegis. The album went nowhere, and when Columbia refused to release their second album, Copperhead folded. Cipollina went on to play in many different bands before dying in 1989. AMG.

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Brian Auger's Oblivion Express - Straight Ahead 1974

Some would say that is a disappointing release compared to its predecessor, Closer to It. Still, side one kicks off nicely with a typical Auger groove on "Beginning Again," then glides into a smooth, lyrical version of Wes Montgomery's "Bumpin' on Sunset." The album has a nice sound, but the material is inferior to previous Oblivion Express albums. AMG.

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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band 1965

Even after his death, Paul Butterfield's music didn't receive the accolades that were so deserved. Outputting styles adopted from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters among other blues greats, Butterfield became one of the first white singers to rekindle blues music through the course of the mid-'60s. His debut album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, saw him teaming up with guitarists Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield, with Jerome Arnold on bass, Sam Lay on drums, and Mark Naftalin playing organ. The result was a wonderfully messy and boisterous display of American-styled blues, with intensity and pure passion derived from every bent note. In front of all these instruments is Butterfield's harmonica, beautifully dictating a mood and a genuine feel that is no longer existent, even in today's blues music. Each song captures the essence of Chicago blues in a different way, from the back-alley feel of "Born in Chicago" to the melting ease of Willie Dixon's "Mellow Down Easy" to the authentic devotion that emanates from Bishop and Butterfield's "Our Love Is Drifting." "Shake Your Money Maker," "Blues With a Feeling," and "I Got My Mojo Working" (with Lay on vocals) are all equally moving pieces performed with a raw adoration for blues music. Best of all, the music that pours from this album is unfiltered...blared, clamored, and let loose, like blues music is supposed to be released. A year later, 1966's East West carried on with the same type of brash blues sound partnered with a jazzier feel, giving greater to attention to Bishop's and Bloomfield's instrumental talents. AMG.

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Matching Mole - Matching Mole 1972

The opening track, "O Caroline," is indicative of Wyatt at his best: art rock with a human face, a playful vocal, and soul. Much of the record is instrumental improvisation, though, with the humor largely confined to the song titles ("Instant Pussy," "Dedicated to Hugh, But You Weren't Listening"). For every nifty passage (the extended melancholy Mellotron solo on "Immediate Curtain," the goofy scat vocals on "Signed Curtain"), there's equal or greater instrumental patter. Some art rock devotees really get behind this album, but it doesn't count among the more enduring statements by the Canterbury crowd. AMG.

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Darius - Darius 1969

"I feel so bad," sings Darius with an air of resigned desperation near the end of the opening cut, "Shades of Blue," before closing the song with a truly memorable larynx-shredding scream. That sets the tone for this weird little mini-gem, a kind of downbeat psychedelic anomaly that nevertheless boasts some nifty melodic hooks and tight, exuberant playing. Darius delivers his trippy but anxious tunes with a powerful, fetching grit, bolstered by pungent organ and piano arrangements. There's a curious air of mystical disorientation on this obscurity, which deserves a wider hearing. The 2001 CD reissue, as a German import on World in Sound, adds three previously unreleased cuts, also recorded in 1969. These aren't quite up to the same level as the rest of the songs, and one, "Peace & Love," sounds like an instrumental backing track missing the vocal. AMG. Thanks to ChrisGoesRock

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Banda Black Rio - Maria Fumaça 1977

This is the CD reissue of the opening LP by Banda Black Rio, recorded in 1977. The instrumental band, dissolved in 1980, had an excellent work of electric samba-funk fusion, with hot brass arrangements, a good percussive section, and good solos. This first album brings the hit "Maria Fumaça," included in the homonymous soap opera. The album also has good performances of Luiz Gonzaga's "Baião," Edu Lobo's "Casa Forte," and Ary Barroso's "Na Baixa do Sapateiro," along with the band's originals. AMG.

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Clifford T. Ward - Home Thoughts From Abroad 1973

Right in the middle of glam rock 1973 came a homely singer/songwriter from the small village of Stourport near Birmingham named Clifford T. Ward who took the charts by storm with a simple love song, "Gaye," telling the age-old story of a girl and how much she meant to him. This was like a breath of fresh air in the overproduced mid-'70s by its very nature. For here was a man who told simple stories, with beautiful melodies, played with the minimum of fuss. Hot on the heels of the single "Gaye" came his second album, Home Thoughts, which Ward was heavily involved with writing and producing, as well as playing keyboards. Home Thoughts opened with the lovely ballad "Gaye" and continued in the same vein as the single with piano backed ballads sung with clear, concise lyrics, reflecting Ward's homespun family thoughts, living as an ordinary man with a wife and three children, spurning the attention from the media, refusing to tour or play any live gigs that would take him away from his family, and also shying away from the pop press, interviews, and photographs, except when absolutely necessary. Clifford T. Ward had been working as an English teacher at a local school and it was here he developed his love of poetry and words, an asset he brought to his songs, especially "Where Would That Leave Me" and "Time the Magician," "Home Thoughts from Abroad," and "The Open University" in which he namechecks his favorite authors, and "Wherewithal," a song he wrote simply because he liked the sound of the word. But for all the beautiful songs on Home Thoughts, the standout track is the hit single "Gaye" with its instantly memorable singalong melody. AMG.

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Chain - Two Of A Kind 1973

Over 40 musicians have been a member of Chain, one of Australia's premier blues bands that has been going strong for over three decades.

Formed from the remnants of Perth band the Beaten Tracks in 1968, the Chain were named by singer Wendy Saddington after the classic soul track "Chain of Fools." Saddington soon left and the band released one of Australia's first progressive blues singles, "Show Me Home," in 1969. Soon after, the Chain shortened their moniker to Chain. In June 1970, Chain recorded the classic live album, Live Chain, at Caesar's Palace discotheque, and along with other Australian acts like Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Carson, and the Adderley Smith Blues Band, were considered at the forefront of the Australian blues movement.

Signing a new deal with Infinity, the blues subsidiary of Festival, Chain released the single "Black and Blue," which reached number ten on the national charts in May 1971. The classic album Toward the Blues peaked at number six in 1971 and is considered one of Australia's greatest blues albums. The follow-up single, "Judgement," established Chain as the nation's leading progressive blues band. Chain Live Again was released in October 1972 and Chain went on to appear at the first Sunbury Festival in January 1972.

In 1973, the band singed with the new Mushroom label and issued the Two of a Kind album. Chain's rotating lineup broke up in 1974 and Mushroom issued the retrospective History of Chain album. Six years later, interest in Chain was still strong and they played at the Mushroom Evolution Concert in January 1982 to celebrate Mushroom's tenth anniversary. They re-formed permanently in 1983 and released Child of the Street in October 1985. Their next album, Australian Rhythm and Blues, was released in April 1988, followed by Blue Metal in May 1990. Several members undertook a tour of Australia in 1991 as Blues Power, while another member, Matt Taylor, toured as Matt Taylor's Chain, who released the album Walls 2 McGoo (Trouble in the Wind) in 1992. The original Chain again undertook a national tour in 1995. AMG.

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Chico Freeman - Spirit Sensitive 1979

This set was a change-of-pace for Chico Freeman for it features the usually adventurous tenor (who doubles on soprano) mostly playing warm versions of standards. The CD reissue adds four previously unissued selections (including a pair of Coltrane tunes, "Lonnie's Lament" and "Wise One") to the original program. With pianist John Hicks, bassist Cecil McBee and either Billy Hart or Don Moye on drums offering fine support (vibraphonist Jay Hoggard sits in on "Carnival"), Freeman pushes at but does not break the boundaries of hard bop. Highlights include "Autumn in New York" (a duet withMcBee), Horace Silver's "Peace," "It Never Entered My Mind" and the bassist's "Close to You Alone." AMG.

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Ian A. Anderson - Book of Changes 1970

English musician and an interesting album.

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