Alan Ross - Are You Free On Saturday 1977

British guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, died June 2019. Initially in the group Ro Ro with bassist Warwick Rose he soon collaborated with John Entwistle and then formed his own band Ross which recorded two mellow funk-rock albums for RSO, contributed to Tommy (Original Soundtrack Recording), and released two LPs with Stars and another as The Alan Ross Band. He later became a session musician, working with several well-known pop acts until the mid-2000s.

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Gasolin' - Gasolin' 1971

Often referred to as Denmark's answer to the Beatles, Danish rock band Gasolin' is widely regarded as the nation's most popular band to date. Established in 1969 by Kim Larsen, Franz Beckerlee, and Wili Jonsson, Gasolin' started with English-language material such as "Silky Sally," "Child of the Institution," and "Johnny the Jackpot," released in 1970. Lacking the success and acceptance they'd hoped for, the band members began recording music in their native language and experienced an immediate turnaround in their popularity. Released in 1971, the band's self-titled debut was very well received. With subsequent records such as Gasolin' 2 and Gasolin' 3, among others, the band quickly became Denmark's best-selling pop group, dominating national radio and playing Denmark's most important venues. Throughout the '70s, Gasolin' attempted to crack the international market, re-releasing albums in English and playing clubs throughout the U.K. Despite winning an iconic reputation on its home soil, the band's inability to conquer the English-language market caused tension and stress among its members, who ultimately broke up in the early '80s. Frontman Kim Larsen began a successful solo career in 1984 with his debut record, Midt Om Natten, one of Denmark's best-selling albums of all time. Gasolin' collections and compilations began with Supermix in 1980 and have continued all the way up through 2003's Black Box box set and 2009's Masser af Succes. The Gasolin' story was documented in the award-winning film Gasolin'-4-Ever, directed by Anders Ostergaard, whipping up renewed interest in the group's history and music. AMG.

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Brian Short - Anything For A Laugh 1971

Brian Short (1948 – 2014) was an English singer who emerged as the frontman of Black Cat Bones. His solo album, Anything for a Laugh, appeared in 1971 on Transatlantic Records. The 12-song album features 11 originals, including “Blue Tuesday,” “Don’t You Need Me Anymore,” “Emily,” “Wishing Well” and “Winter Comes.” Also included is a cover of the Randy Newman composition “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today.” The album was produced by Mike Finesilver (Love Sculpture, Kingdom Come, Ross, Gonzalez, J.A.L.N. Band). He later wrote songs for Jeff Beck and Hummingbird. 

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Love - Reel to Real 1974

Arthur Lee had every reason to feel disenchanted with his career in 1974, as his harder rock moves on 1970's False Start and his 1972 solo debut Vindicator didn't please critics or fans and his deal with the fledgling Buffalo Records label left him with an unreleased album, Black Beauty, when the company abruptly crashed and burned. Lee had started dipping his toes into material with a stronger R&B edge on Black Beauty, and when RSO Records gave him another chance at a major-label deal, he dove in headfirst: in a Rolling Stone interview, Lee said Reel to Real was his effort to get "as black and funky as I can, man, on my music." If folks hoping for another Da Capo or Forever Changes weren't pleased with False Start or Vindicator, they were simply confused by Reel to Real's funk grooves and banks of horns and keyboards (not to mention a lineup that featured no previous members of Love but Lee). However, while the album has often been written off as a failure, Reel to Real is an album with more than its share of great moments, even if it's inarguably uneven. Lee's vocals are tough but eloquent on these tunes, and though the music is often rooted in deep funk (especially on the percolating "Who Are You" and "With a Little Energy"), blues ("Which Witch is Which"), and vintage R&B ("Stop the Music"), the fierce guitar work from Lee, Melvan Whittington, and John Sterling makes it clear Lee hadn't cut his ties to rock & roll. Psychedelia doesn't really play a part in this music, but the introspective twists of Lee's lyrics confirm he still had plenty to say about the world around him and the universe inside his mind. The closing acoustic version of "Everybody's Gotta Live" (which first appeared on Vindicator) offered a brief glimpse of the sly, thoughtful hippie who had recorded Forever Changes just seven years earlier. Reel to Real plays more like an Arthur Lee solo effort than a Love album (and was blighted with a singularly ugly cover), but it's a good Arthur Lee album, with a tighter focus and a more thoughtful perspective than Vindicator, proving Lee still had a great deal to say even if his audience didn't care to listen. AMG.

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Edward Bear - Bearings 1969

Formed in 1967 around Larry Evoy (drums, vocals), Danny Marks (guitar), and Paul Weldon (organ), Edward Bear was signed to Capitol. "You, Me & Mexico," from their debut album Bearings, hit the Canadian Top Ten in 1970. After their sophomore LP Eclipse, Edward Bear's 1972 single "Last Song" was another hit in the U.S. as well as Canada and sold over one million copies. Marks and Weldon left around this time; they were replaced by Roger Ellis and Bob Kendall, neither of whom stayed more than two years. Along with The Best of the Bear (1984) and The Edward Bear Collection (1991), a self-titled album from 1972 and 1973's Close Your Eyes is also available. AMG.

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Donovan - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden 1967

Rock music's first two-LP box set, A Gift from a Flower to a Garden overcomes its original shortcomings and stands out as a prime artifact of the flower-power era that produced it. The music still seems a bit fey, and overall more spacy than the average Moody Blues album of this era, but the sheer range of subjects and influences make this a surprisingly rewarding work. Essentially two albums were recorded simultaneously in the summer of 1967, the electric tracks include Jack Bruce among the session players. The acoustic tracks represent an attempt by Donovan to get back to his old sound and depart from the heavily electric singles ("Sunshine Superman," etc.) and albums he'd been doing -- it is folkier and bluesier (in an English folk sense) than much of his recent work. AMG.

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Indian Summer - Indian Summer 1971

The quartet was formed in Coventry, UK, in 1969. Members were Malcolm Harker on bass, Paul Hooper on drums, Bob Jackson on keyboards and lead vocals, and Colin Williams on guitar.

Their manager was Jim Simpson who was managing Black Sabbath at the time. Simpson signed Indian Summer with the same production team to record their first and only album. This self-titled album was released two and a half years later, in 1971. Indian Summer disbanded at the beginning of 1972.

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Lindisfarne - Nicely Out of Tune 1970

Easily the best album the group ever recorded, Nicely Out Of Tune is one of the prettiest folk-rock albums of the late 1960s. If Lindisfarne had never recorded anything else, they'd be one of the most fondly remembered acts of their era just for this album. "Lady Eleanor" is a very pretty tune that manages to incorporate elegant mandolin over some heavy rock riffing. "Road To Kingdom Come" is closer in spirit to the group's usual pub-rock sound, a singalong-type number with lots of really crunchy harmonica, mandolin, and fiddle, and a really catchy chorus -- "Jackhammer Blues" is pretty nearly as good a rocker. But "Winter Song" is one of the gentlest, most haunting folk ballads of its period, almost too pretty to have come from a rock band, and "Alan In The River With Flowers" isn't far behind. The rest is in the same class and league, and as a bonus, the CD contains two lost B-sides, "Knackers Yard Blues" and "Nothing But The Marvelous Is Beautiful" -- they're not bad, either. AMG.

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James Gang - Newborn 1975

Tommy Bolin left the James Gang after the release of Miami, leaving the band without a compelling lead guitarist once again. Fox and Peters broke up the group after his departure, but they re-formed a year later, adding guitarist Richard Shack and vocalist Bubba Keith. The new version of the James Gang released their first album, Newborn, in 1975. The record was another collection of mediocre songs -- a problem that plagued the band ever since the departure of Joe Walsh in 1971. On Bang and Miami, the group was able to disguise the absence of good songs with Bolin's playing, but Shack could not compete with his predecessor's forceful, flowing style and Newborn suffered accordingly. AMG.

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Aucán - Aucán 1977

The group Aucán made progressive music with folkloric roots, which at times reached good instrumental climates, with simple and concrete poetry lyrics. At some point the group came to make its sound at the beginning of the first Serú Girán, with abundant mini moog and Fender piano.

Finally Miguel Pérez leaves the band for his solo project Yuelze (which he played with Jinetes Negros last year, within the Cabeza de Moog / Peña Rock cycle at the Rincón cultural space, a show that I tell you they missed because it was great).
The brothers Eugenio and Miguel Perez had been performing as a duo since 1970. They released an independent album in 1972 and performed at Acusticazo. Three years later they summoned their other two younger brothers to shape Aucán, with a more folkloric inclination. After releasing a single also independently, they got a contract for their first LP ("Aucán", 1977). Shortly after, and after performing with Mercedes Sosa and Jaime Torres, Miguel began his solo career and his brothers called on Guillermo Fracchetti as second guitarist.

"Brotes del alba" was the second album, produced in 1980 by León Gieco and presented at the B.A.Rock Festival that year.

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Mac Gayden - Hymn To The Seeker 1976

Mac Gayden was born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. He played with Charlie McCoy and the Escorts and that group started playing many sessions in Nashville. In the late 1960s, he helped establish two critically acclaimed bands. These were Area Code 615 (signed with Polydor) and Barefoot Jerry (signed with Capitol Records); in which Gayden wrote the songs, played guitars, and sang. Gayden left Barefoot Jerry in 1971 to record his first solo album with Bob Johnston whom he had worked with on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album, and Johnston asked to produce the solo album on Gayden (McGavock Gayden. EMI). Gayden formed his own band, Skyboat in 1972 and recorded two albums for ABC Records. He also served as producer of an album by Dianne Davidson (Baby) and one by Steve Young (To Satisfy You). Gayden has recorded as a session guitar player with JJ Cale, John Hiatt, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Simon and Garfunkel, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Young, Rita Coolidge, Joe Simon, The Valentines, Elvis Presley, Ian and Sylvia, Jerry Jeff Walker, Loudon Wainwright, Connie Francis, The Alarm, Pearls before Swine, Ivory Joe Hunter, Robert Knight ("Everlasting Love"), Clifford Curry ("She Shot A Hole in My Soul"), Bobby Vinton and more. Gayden recorded a lot with Billy Sherrill who produced many hits.

When he was five he started to compose a song on his grandmother's piano ("Everlasting Love"). Later, when he heard Robert Knight's voice while he was performing at a fraternity house at Vanderbilt next to the one Knight's band was playing in, he ran over introduced himself, and told Knight he had a song for him. Gayden got together with Knight and began pulling in the pieces of the song. He also brought in his friend, Buzz Cason, he and Cason produced "Everlasting Love". It was Robert Knight's first hit, followed by another song Gayden wrote, "Rainbow Valley". When Gayden was introduced to Clifford Curry he presented another song he wrote "She Shot A Hole in My Soul", that started Curry's career with a hit. Gayden produced The Valentines on his song "Gotta Get Yourself Together". All these songs were included on the Grammy-winning album produced by the Country Music Hall of Fame, Night Train to Nashville.

Gayden recorded one album on EMI McGavock Gayden, two on ABC Records, Skyboat, and Hymn to the Seeker. The latter he recorded in Miami at Criteria, with Fleetwood Mac recording Rumours in one studio and the Eagles doing Hotel California in the other. Randy Meisner from the Eagles sang background with Gayden on some songs. One album on Winter Harvest Nirvana Blues was then followed by one album on Arena Records, Come Along (2020). He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Cats in 2014 with a ceremony at The Country Music Hall of Fame, and was also included in the Dylan/Cash exhibit for over six years and played many concerts for that exhibit 2014. His guitar and wah-wah pedal were on exhibit at the Hall of Fame as he innovated the slide wah technique on the JJ Cale song "Crazy Mama". Gayden published a book called The Missing String Theory - A Musicians Uncommon Spiritual Journey, which is an autobiography.

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Ry Cooder - Bop Till You Drop 1979

Following his conceptual 1978 release, Jazz, Ry Cooder returned the next year with the R&B/soul-based Bop Till You Drop. The first major-label, digitally recorded album, Bop is a nice set of moderately known to obscure tunes from the '50s and '60s (along with a Cooder/Tim Drummond original) that doesn't always live up to its promise. Cooder and his excellent band, which includes the rhythm section of Tim Drummond and Jim Keltner along with guitarist David Lindley, understand the material and are more than capable of laying down a decent groove, but something must have gotten lost in translation from what was played to what came across on the recording. There's a thinness to the tracks that undermines the performances, which according to Cooder is due to the digital recording. If you check out the live version of Bop Till You Drop's opener, "Little Sister," from the No Nukes record (using the same band), you can see what surely could have been. Still, Bop is worthwhile given Cooder's penchant for choosing great tunes, as well as the tight performances, brilliant guitar work, and a handful of great guest vocalists (including Chaka Khan). A few of the highlights include his arrangement of the early-'60s Elvis hit "Little Sister," the soulful "The Very Thing That Makes You Rich (Makes Me Poor)," an instrumental take on Ike & Tina Turner's "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine," and "I Can't Win," featuring Cooder's longtime cohort Bobby King on lead vocal. AMG.

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Génesis - Génesis 1974

Genesis was born in 1972 in the heart of a hippie commune located next to the Benedictine Monks Monastery in Usme, located south of Bogota, Colombia, after the former member of The Speakers, Humberto Monroy, venture into this movement and music projects ever undertaken more experimental.

Gene-Sis, Genesis also known as Genesis of Colombia, was the most persistent project of the first generation of Colombian rock. It was characterized by fusing elements of folk rock with Colombian folk rhythms, especially in the Andean region and in the beginning, on the Caribbean coast.

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Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti 1975

Led Zeppelin returned from a nearly two-year hiatus in 1975 with the double album Physical Graffiti, their most sprawling and ambitious work. Where Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy integrated influences on each song, the majority of the tracks on Physical Graffiti are individual stylistic workouts. The highlights are when Zeppelin incorporates influences and stretches out into new stylistic territory, most notably on the tense, Eastern-influenced "Kashmir." "Trampled Underfoot," with John Paul Jones' galloping keyboard, is their best funk-metal workout, while "Houses of the Holy" is their best attempt at pop, and "Down by the Seaside" is the closest they've come to country. Even the heavier blues -- the 11-minute "In My Time of Dying," the tightly wound "Custard Pie," and the monstrous epic "The Rover" -- are louder and more extended and textured than their previous work. Also, all of the heavy songs are on the first record, leaving the rest of the album to explore more adventurous territory, whether it's acoustic tracks or grandiose but quiet epics like the effect of "Ten Years Gone." The second half of Physical Graffiti feels like the group is cleaning the vaults out, issuing every little scrap of music they set to tape in the past few years. That means that the album is filled with songs that aren't quite filler but don't quite match the peaks of the album, either. Still, even these songs have their merits -- "Sick Again" is the meanest, most decadent rocker they ever recorded, and the folky acoustic rock & roll of "Boogie with Stu" and "Black Country Woman" may be tossed off, but they have a relaxed, off-hand charm that Zeppelin never matched. It takes a while to sort out all of the music on the album, but Physical Graffiti captures the whole experience of Led Zeppelin at the top of their game better than any of their other albums. AMG.

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Totem - Totem 1971

The group was initially formed by Rubén Rada, Eduardo Useta, Enrique Rey, Mario "Chichito" Cabral, Roberto Galletti, and Daniel Lobito Lagarde. With the exception of the last one (who was only 19 years old), they were all musicians with extensive experience in Uruguayan music. The group's name was proposed by "Chichito" Cabral in a group rehearsal. According to him, on a trip to Hamburg, he saw a bright sign that said "Totem". He thought it might be an abbreviation for "Todos tenemos musica" ("We all have music") and promised himself that if he ever got a group together, that would be the name.

The band's first rehearsals were held at the end of the 1970s. Its first public performances were in January 1971: the 6th at the Clube da Universidade de Salto (in a dance for the youth of the Communist Party), the 7th at the Wanderers stadium, in Paysandú and the 20th in Montevideo, at Segundo Concierto de la Rosa (where the band plays alongside Psiglo and Syndikato). His performance in February at a festival in Parque Harriague, in Salto, is also well remembered.
The first album, "Totem", was recorded on May 2, 1971, at ION studios in Buenos Aires and published in July by the De la Planta record label. Although there are songs by Rey, Lagarde, and Cabral, many of the compositions are written by Rada and Useta (as co-authors or individually). The album was presented on July 14th at the El Galpón Theater, in a performance with Camarata de Tango. This first work was very well received both in sales (with more than three thousand copies sold in his country) and in reviews. At the end of 1971, it was already one of the groups that most people called for in Uruguay, filling all the scenarios in which it was presented. This is due not only to the good reception the group received but also to the precise marketing management carried out by manager Alfonso López Domínguez.

By 1972, the group had established itself as the most popular in Uruguay (perhaps along with Los Iracundos). That year, they were filmed by RAI for a television program about Latin American music and were presented in Pipo Mancera's successful circular Saturdays. The group's second album, titled "Descarga", was recorded in the same studio as the first album. There are compositions on this album by Rada, Lagarde, Cabral, and Useta: the last song is written by the entire group. This album is also a sales success, although the opinions of music critics are not as good as those of the debut LP. The album was released in Casapueblo (without having yet been released) and without the presence of Galetti on drums, replaced by Santiago Ameijenda. The second performance of the album (newly released) was held on July 9, 1972, at the Teatro Solís, filling the place (there were even more than a thousand people without tickets waiting outside the theater).
At the end of 1972, mainly due to the country's socio-political situation (in the prelude to the Coup d'état), the group's shares began to decline. Rubén Rada and "Lobito" Lagarde left the band, joining the first line-up of Gula Matari (a group that only had a few recitals at the beginning of 1973). Roberto Giordano (bassist) and Tomás "Chocho" Paolini (who played saxophone, flute, and clarinet) joined the group. The group's first voices became those of Useta and Rey.

In January 1973, they recorded their third and final album, "Corrupción". Of the eight songs on the album, six are written by Useta, one by Cabral, and one by Rey. Although it is an album respected by the public and critics, Rubén Rada's absence was too noticeable to be ignored and the group began to lose popularity.

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