Country Rock

[Wornears]

Gram Parsons

'nuff said

[SEAWOLF97]

An all-time favorite album of mine (as well as many critics) is Crosby's "If Only I Could Remember My Name" which is really a snapshot of everyone active in the music biz in the Bay Area back then. A great album, for anyone not familiar with it already and way ahead of its time.

that is the beauty of these type of threads ....I saw a copy last week and passed as the title seemed lame , but Phil & my appreciations of Stills makes it a good recommendation to pick up next time I see it.

[hjames]

Now Crosby, who still has his voice, unlike Stills, is (IMHO) far more talented than Young. Go to early Byrds and Jeff Airplane to confirm his songwriting skill. An all-time favorite album of mine (as well as many critics) is Crosby's "If Only I Could Remember My Name" which is really a snapshot of everyone active in the music biz in the Bay Area back then. A great album, for anyone not familiar with it already and way ahead of its time.

Yeah, its like all that stuff from Wally Heider's studio back in the day ... a kind of
Crosby/Dead/Starship (original)/Jorma/Cassady/Joni/blend -
everybody's on a really good groove and the tape just kept running on and on, on and on ...

I've got a couple boots from that era - David and the Dorks live at the Matrix - Dec 15-17, 1970,
and, of course, the original PERRO recordings (Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra) -
see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_...Roll_Orchestra

The music can be heard here:
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2009...a-perro-tapes/


Lots of detail on the Dead Archives site-
http://www.deaddisc.com/disc/If_Only_I_Could.htm#r

" In December 1970 Crosby, Garcia, Leash and Hart played together as a group. Garcia later spoke about this group in an interview;

We had a little band called David and the Dorks. He was the star, and it was his trip that we were doing. It was right around the time he was in the Bay Area a lot ... we did maybe two or three shows ... they weren't announced or anything; we just went in there on a Monday night and had a lot of fun, and the sound was cool. In fact, that was the core of the band that played on David's album."

All that stuff has some really nice moments ...
All that stuff has some endless SF - jam moments that can just go off into space and drift ...
be warned - its very interesting in smaller doses but its not for everybody!

http://www.philzone.com/philbase/perro.html

[BMWCCA]

that is the beauty of these type of threads ....I saw a copy last week and passed as the title seemed lame , but Phil & my appreciations of Stills makes it a good recommendation to pick up next time I see it.

I never thought of it this way but I did spend quite a lot of time listening to it with headphones (Superex ST-Pro VB) back when it was a new release:http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/speak...omment-page-3/

And Larry Archibald writing for the Sterophile 1991 article "Records to Die For" wrote (excerpted):

Having had an active career in rock music before jumping tracks to become a hi-fi writer, I perhaps have a slightly different perspective from many audiophiles on what makes a rock recording stand out from the crowd. Musically, such recordings must have evidence of the artist having a unique voice---no "me too" music please. Philosophically I have no aversion to signal processing of any kind (though I find sampled and sequenced drums to resemble shaped and textured noise), but I do like unexaggerated vocal textures, with all the dynamics of live rock preserved intact. Personally, my tastes run toward the big sound rather than the intimately balanced---Phil Spector was, not surprisingly, the producer who lured me away from my classical upbringing---which is why, most of all, I want the mind behind a rock record's production to have intelligently, tastefully, and cleverly created a tangible sense of space between, behind, and beyond the loudspeakers, enveloping the listener in sound and feeling.(Footnote 3) Many albums achieve this goal with one or two tracks, but only a few sustain the sense of invention for a whole two sides. After much headscratching, my finalists in this category are: Joan Armatrading's Show Some Emotion, A&M LP AMLH 68433 (1977) and Joan Armatrading, A&M LP AMLH 64588 (1976); the Beach Boys' Surf's Up, Brother Records LP RS 6453 (1971); Clannad's Magical Ring, RCA LP ALP6072 and CD ND71473 (1983); David Crosby's If Only I Could Remember My Name, Atlantic LP SD-7203 (1971); Dire Straits' Love Over Gold, Vertigo UK CD 800 088-2 (1982), and Brothers in Arms, Vertigo UK CD 824 499-2 (1985); Donny Hathaway's Donny Hathaway Live, Atlantic LP K40369 (1971); Pink Floyd's The Wall, EMI Harvest UK LP SHDW 411 (1980), and Wish You Were Here, EMI Harvest UK LP SHVL 814 (1975); and Steely Dan's Aja, MCA LP MCA-1688 and CD MCAD-37214, and Mobile Fidelity LP MFSL 033 (1977) (XII-10), and Gaucho, MCA LP 6102 and CD MCAD-37220 (1980).

That's pretty good company!

[Ducatista47]

How I forgot her I will never know; I guess female vocalists do not spring to my mind when I think of Country Rock. Seawolf touched on her, but it got by me. No doubt, however, that the finest voice of the genre probably belongs to Linda Ronstadt. Her friend Emmylou Harris is a strong second, perhaps an equal. When Emmylou is with Neil Young, it is hard to beat the combination. Well, the Trio sessions might, but Country Rock they are probably not.

[SEAWOLF97]

How I forgot her I will never know; I guess female vocalists do not spring to my mind when I think of Country Rock. Seawolf touched on her, but it got by me. No doubt, however, that the finest voice of the genre probably belongs to Linda Ronstadt.

Ah yes, but which Linda are we talking about ? (as in which Fleetwood Mac ??) ...she started out as "country'ish rock" but has done pop, opera, duets, big band ...etc. it all seemed "more honest" on the first couple of albums tho.

I did catch her cajun-french duet album >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adieu_False_Heart
and she still has THE VOICE , despite having ballooned up ....
it has a cover of the Left Banke's "Walk away Renee" that is truly outstanding

As for country rock, when you say that term .....I immediately picture either Buffalo Springfield (or one of its incarnations/spinoffs) or The Eagles.

[Ducatista47]

I am not fit to comment on how honest or appropriate Ronstadt's efforts have been through the years; I am not that knowledgeable about some of the genres she has participated in.

She seems to be, however, due to all those efforts, one of the most accomplished popular singers in history. As in Bach being the most accomplished Western musician of all time.

In any case, I care far more about her unbelievable voice and the use she put it to in the service of music I do know and love. I have never heard a singer that could do a better job on a no backup singer, hanging out in front of God and everybody performance like she did on "Long, Long Time" (for instance - not saying it is Country Rock).

Thanks for the heads up on the Cajun record.