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Home , Black Country Communion, Ed Cassidy, Firefall, I Got a Line on You, Jo Jo Gunne, Mark Andes

Rival Sons is an American rock band that routinely sells shows out in Europe, but are virtually unknown in America. Classic Rock magazine from the U.K. had five different versions of the December issue, each featuring a different band on the cover as contender for band of the year in 2012. The bands were The Rolling Stones, , Rush, Black Country Communion and . It is time that Rival Sons finally get some recognition at home. The unlikely pairing of Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite has produced a great new called Get Up! The collaboration is on the Stax label, and if you like at all, you will love this album. Texas Flood, the first album by & Double, will soon be thirty years old, and a new double disc 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition has just been released to mark the occasion. Stevie Ray breathed new life into the blues and this album was the spark that began his journey of almost single‐handedly resurrecting blues music. Spirit was an American rock band formed in the late 60’s that is mostly known for two hits: from 1968 and Nature’s Way from 1970. Spirit was very musically experimental and cutting edge for their time. They were highly influential to many more popular artists, especially Led Zeppelin, who actually took the descending acoustic line used in , from a Spirit song.

Rival Sons – Pressure & Time and Head Down

Rival Sons is a classic rock style band with just a touch of modern rock that formed in , in 2008, but they are not the poser hair band that L.A. has become known for churning out. Rival Sons is the real deal, and while there is no denying their influences from 60’s & 70’s hard rock bands, they have their own sound (despite using the brief guitar echo from Spirit In The Sky in their song All The Way). Guitarist found lead singer Jay Buchanan on a friend’s My Space page, and it turned out that drummer Michael Miley already knew him, but he didn’t think that Buchanan would be interested in joining as he was playing folk based rock at the time. Buchanan auditioned with and things clicked, and they have now released three full length and an EP of great music that will appeal to classic rock fans of all ages.

Pressure & Time is Rival Son’s 2011 album featuring artwork by , famous for album artwork by bands such as and Led Zeppelin. It’s a great rocking album from start to finish that 70’s classic rock fans will love. There is a deluxe version of Pressure & Time that was released in 2012 that adds two songs that came out as a single afterwards and a DVD that includes four live videos and three promo videos. Head Down is the latest Rival Sons album, recorded in Nashville after producer re‐located there from L.A. Singer Jay Buchanan said that it was Rival Sons’ duty to prove that they are more than just a 70’s‐style blues based rock band, and Head Down is the result. It is a strong album that finds the brand expanding into a bit of power pop and some on a couple of tracks. Some of the songs are longer and more adventurous as well. The two part Manifest Destiny is about an American Indian buffalo hunting party that discovers wagon tracks that head towards their home camp. They return to find that everyone in the camp had been killed by the army. Both sides say that they are dealing with enemies that are Godless men. Part two is about the Indians waiting for dawn to retaliate and attack the soldiers.

Both Pressure & Time and Head Down are available on limited edition vinyl from the Earache via the band’s website. Earache, incidentally, is a heavy metal label from that believed in Rival Sons enough to take a chance with a classic rock band for the first time. Earache’s gamble has paid off very well for them. Rival Sons’ first album Before The Fire was self‐released in 2009, and it is available on download only, but in FLAC, Apple Lossless and mp3, as is their six song self‐titled EP, released in 2010.

Here are a couple of music videos from Rival Sons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐MA0m1K2jW4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐ijOlAR3zs8

Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite – Get Up!

Ben Harper grew up listening to his parent’s Charlie Musselwhite records and considered Musselwhite, who grew up in Memphis, a major influence. The two met in Australia at the Byron Bay Bluesfest, and later worked together on John Lee Hooker’s The Best Of Friends album in 1998. They hit it off extremely well, and playing music together came very natural for the duo. Harper and Musselwhite said at that time that they should do an album together, and John Lee Hooker agreed, telling them that they should do it immediately. It took the duo fifteen years to finally record together, and the results are surprisingly good. This may be the best album that either of them has recorded, in fact.

Get Up! is a mixture of acoustic and electric blues that sounds fresh and will appeal to both casual blues fans as well as blues purists. As Musselwhite says, the best music is about the tone and feeling. Even if one plays perfectly, they really aren’t saying anything if they don’t have the right tone. Harper and Musselwhite have the right tone and they know it. There isn’t a weak song on the album, though it would have been nice to have had a couple more rocking songs like I Don’t Believe A Word You Say and expand the album to twelve songs instead of ten. The acoustic songs sound extremely casual. Musselwhite can be heard holding a conversation during All That Matters Now, as he and guitarist Jason Mozersky were just riffing during a recording break and Harper heard them and recorded it, writing lyrics and overdubbing vocals to the song later.

There is a deluxe version of Get Up! that includes a bonus DVD of the making of the album plus three live performances. There is a $2.00 off Best Buy coupon on Ben Harper’s facebook page that is good through 2/2.

Here is a video from the Deluxe Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite Get Up! album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YndfhwNMniI Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – Texas Flood 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition

Texas Flood is the excellent first Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble album, originally released on June 13, 1983. It was recorded in three days at Jackson Browne’s studio that he offered to the band for free after seeing them play at an after festival show jam at the Casino. The resulting recording was used as a demo to get a record deal, and with a little remixing, the demo was released as the final product. Texas Flood has the hit song Pride And Joy, which introduced most people to Stevie Ray’s music, and it is still a classic rock radio staple today, but Texas Flood has a lot more to offer than a hit song. It has become a classic electric blues album that has inspired thousands of blues guitarists that a friend of mine refers to as Stevie Ray Wannabes. Stevie Ray could play blindingly fast with a great tone that was a mixture of , Albert King, Buddy Guy and Hubert Sumlin of Howlin’ Wolf’s band. Stevie Ray played guitar with substance, not just style and flash. commented that music poured out of him naturally and seemingly effortlessly.

The new 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of Texas Flood includes the original album with the bonus outtake track Tin Pan Alley, which was re‐recorded for the next album, Couldn’t Stand The Weather. Tin Pan Alley was left off of Texas Flood because they literally ran out of tape before the song was finished! The real bonus on this release is the second disc of a live show recorded October 20, 1983 at Ripley’s Music Hall in . This concert was a King Biscuit Flower Hour show that has been a popular bootleg for years, but it appears here in the best sound quality ever. Stevie Ray Vaughan was always awesome live, and this is an excellent early show that has half of the songs for Texas Flood and includes smoking versions of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and Little Wing/Third Stone From The Sun (some Stevie Ray fanatics consider this his best version of Little Wing). Unfortunately, the three encore instrumentals have been left off, and they would have easily fit on the CD. The primary show is intact, however, and it is worth the price of this budget priced two disc set alone, and makes this a must‐ have for fans that already own the Texas Flood album.

Here is a video of Voodoo Child (Slight Return) made on the same tour that the Ripley’s Music Hall show was recorded on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn‐N5pMFmpg

Spirit – Original Album Classics

Spirit formed in Los Angeles after 15 year old guitarist was not allowed by his parents to go to England with band mate Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix gave Randy Wolfe his California stage name because there were two guys named Randy in Hendrix’s band The Blue Flames. One from Texas and one from California. Randy had moved to New York because his stepfather, drummer , re‐located to work with various bands. Randy and Jimi met in a guitar store and became close friends and band mates until took Hendrix to England to record his first album. Randy moved back to Los Angeles and formed Spirit with singer Jay Ferguson, bass player , keyboardist and his stepfather Ed Cassidy on drums. Cassidy was a standout, because he was twenty years older than the next oldest band member, and his head was shaved clean, which was a rarity in the late 60’s, and non‐ existent in rock bands. Cassidy brought a jazz flavor to the band, and encouraged the trippy musical experimentation that made Spirit unique.

While hit making wasn’t Spirit’s first priority, 17 year old Randy California wrote the catchy I Got A Line On You, which became a #22 hit single, and was famous for Randy’s use of a Sears Silvertone guitar on the song. The rest of the band’s repertoire is not radio friendly like this song, and nothing else on the psychedelic and jazzy The Family That Plays Together album sounds anything remotely like it. It is great music, just not late 60’s top forty material, and the confusion that this caused record buyers at the time is probably a big reason that they never became more successful. Furthermore, Spirit was invited by Jimi Hendrix to open for him at Woodstock, but their manager/producer turned the offer down, thinking that it was more important to promote their new album on their own tour instead of at a music festival. This was probably Adler’s biggest career mistake, and Spirit missed out on a huge opportunity. Spirit’s masterpiece is Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, one of the best psychedelic albums of all time. The acoustic hit Nature’s Way is taken from this album, and was written by California at the request of a hit single by the record label. The album was not a big seller at the time, and Spirit broke up shortly after it was released (though some say the band broke up during the recording, leaving producer David Briggs to complete the editing and mixing on his own). No matter what style of music that Spirit played, Randy California’s guitar playing is always superlative, and it is easy to understand why he was such a big influence on other rock and jazz guitarists, and why Jimi Hendrix wanted him in his band.

Led Zeppelin was the opening band for Sprit when they first came to tour the U.S., and they were later known to play the great song Fresh Garbage, from Sprit’s first album, in their live shows. The first, self‐ titled, Spirit album has a haunting instrumental entitled that begins with a stringed instrument passage that was later replicated on keyboards by John Paul Jones for Led Zeppelin’s In The Light. Taurus also contains a great descending acoustic guitar part that is the opening guitar line used in Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven, released one year after Sprit broke up, and three years after their first album was released. Led Zeppelin is one of my all‐time favorite bands, but there is no denying that should have included Randy California in the writing credits of both Led Zeppelin songs that Taurus was used on.

Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes left Spirit to form , a mainstream rock band that only had mild success, but recorded four great albums. Jay Ferguson went on to a solo career, and had a top ten hit with Thunder Island in 1978. He writes music for TV and movies now, most notably The Office theme song, which he wrote and recorded by himself in his home basement studio. After Jo Jo Gunne, Mark Andes became a founding member of and was in the 80’s version of Heart.

Randy California left Spirit when Ferguson and Andes did, and he recorded a solo album Kapt. Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds in tribute to Jimi Hendrix in 1972. Hendrix bass player played on the album as well. California returned to Spirit in 1974, which Ed Cassidy had held together with new members. The new Spirit had actually recorded a surprisingly good album called Feedback without California. Even with Randy California’s return, Spirit never approached the greatness of the original band. Randy California died in 1997 at 45 years old when he drowned after saving his son from a rip current in . Ed Cassidy died of Cancer at 89 years old in December of 2012.

The Original Album Series of Spirit includes the first four albums by the original band, and the fifth album Feedback. Al l five albums are remastered with bonus tracks added to the first four and all are packaged in mini‐LP sleeves, without the booklets that come with the individual CDs. While it is more Spirit music than the casual fan may want, it is so inexpensive that it can be purchased for the price of the two disc Spirit Time Circle retrospective.