We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
When I started this look back I expected to know all of the entries I would write about. Imagine my surprise when my old high school buddy, Jim Jerue, hit me with an awesome 1971 Lp over the weekend that I had never heard! The album was the self-titled debut from a band called Redwing.
Redwing was a group of guys who hailed from the Sacramento California area and were working in the newly hot “country-rock” genre. Timothy B. Schmidt played bass in the band before joining Poco. And while the “country” can clearly be heard on this LP, it’s much more than that. It’s the rock side of the country-rock equation that comes through. These guys can play and their harmonies are tight and bright. The playing is too edgy and funky to be called sweet. You can tell they had been listening to label mate CCR and the Rolling Stones stuff of that time for inspiration.
The band boasts three guitar players…Tom Phillips, Ron Floegel and Andrew Samuels and they can play.
The album has 10 original tunes and two covers, Micky Newbury’s “Tell Me Baby, Why You Been Gone So Long” and Jimmie Rodgers “California Blues”.
Now…why didn’t these guys make it? They did release 5 LPs (more country than rock) but never hit the big time despite touring with Steve Miller and other name bands of the time. The LP got a stellar write up in Rolling Stone and liner notes written by noted music critic Ralph Gleason. Their label, Fantasy, saw them as a possible successor to CCR. It never happened. Who know why some things hit and others don’t.
It just goes to show that commercial success is not the only measuring stick…especially in the music biz. If you liked Poco, the Burritos, early Eagles and CCR, put this on today and be blown away that a album this good could just fall out of the sky here in 2021.
I’m going back to listen to it again. Enjoy!
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