May 22, 2014

RhoDeo 1420 Goldy Rhox 161

Hello, today the 161 st post of GoldyRhox, classic pop rock in the darklight an American rock band. The band has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide throughout their career. The group was inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004. Drummer John Hartman arrived in California in 1969 determined to meet Skip Spence of Moby Grape and join an aborted Grape reunion. Spence introduced Hartman to singer, guitarist and songwriter Tom Johnston and the two proceeded to form the nucleus of what would become today's mystery band.

In 1970 they teamed up with bass player Dave Shogren and singer, guitarist and songwriter Patrick Simmons. Simmons, who had belonged to several area groups (among them "Scratch", an acoustic trio with future bassist Tiran Porter) and also performed as a solo artist, was already an accomplished fingerstyle player whose approach to the instrument complemented Johnston's rhythmic R&B strumming. The band improved their playing by performing live all over Northern California in 1970. They attracted a particularly strong following among local chapters of the Hells Angels.

At this point in their history, the band's image reflected that of their biggest fans—leather jackets and motorcycles. However, the group's 1971 self-titled debut album departed significantly from that image and their live sound of the period. The album, which failed to chart, emphasized acoustic guitars and frequently reflected country influences. The bouncy lead-off song "Nobody", the band's first single, has surfaced in their live set several times over the ensuing decades.

In October 1971, the band recorded several songs for their second album with Shogren on bass, guitar & background vocals. But a little later, during the album's recording, Shogren left after disagreements with the group's new producer, Ted Templeman. Shogren was replaced in December 1971 with singer, songwriter and bass guitarist Tiran Porter, while Hossack was added to the lineup at the same time as a regular. Porter and Hossack were both stalwarts of the Northern California music scene, Porter brought a funkier bass style to the band and added his husky baritone to the voices of Johnston and Simmons, resulting in a rich three-part harmonic vocal blend.

The second album, which spawned the hits and classic rock staples, "Listen to the Music", and "Jesus Is Just Alright", brought the band their breakthrough success after its release in July 1972. In collaboration with manager Bruce Cohn, producer Ted Templeman and engineer Donn Landee, the band put forward a more polished and eclectic set of songs. Pianist Bill Payne of Little Feat contributed keyboards for the first time, beginning a decades-long collaboration that included many recording sessions and even a two-week stint touring with the band in early 1974. With an improved rhythm section and the songwriting of Johnston and Simmons, the band's trademark sound - an amalgam of R&B, country, bluegrass, hard rock, roadhouse boogie, funk, and rock and roll - emerged fully formed.

The band is still active though these past 4 decades there's been considerable rotation as to who's playing and meanwhile life has taken it's toll too.....

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Most of the albums i 'll post made many millions for the music industry and a lot of what i intend to post still gets repackaged and remastered decades later, squeezing the last drop of profit out of bands that for the most part have ceased to exist long ago, although sometimes they get lured out of the mothballs to do a big bucks gig or tour. Now i'm not as naive to post this kinda music for all to see and have deleted, these will be a black box posts, i'm sorry for those on limited bandwidth but for most of you a gamble will get you a quality rip don't like it, deleting is just 2 clicks...That said i will try to accommodate somewhat and produce some cryptic info on the artist and or album.

Today's mystery album is the second studio album by our mystery rock band , released in  Juli 1st 1972  the album is called after the name of a street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The cover and inside centerfold photos were taken at a brothel on the same  Street. It's an album that has retained a lot of its freshness over the decades. Producer Ted Templeman was attuned to the slightly heavier and more Southern style the band wanted to work toward on this, their second album, and the results were not only profitable -- including a platinum record award -- but artistically impeccable. the mystery album is actually pretty close in style and sound at various points to what the Eagles were doing during the same period, except that  here the band threw jazz and R&B into the mix, as well as country, folk, and bluegrass elements, and (surprise!) ended up just about as ubiquitous as the Eagles in peoples' record collections, especially in the wake of the singles "Listen to the Music" and "Jesus Is Just Alright." But those two singles represented only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what this group had to offer, as purchasers of the album discovered even on the singles -- both songs appear here in distinctly longer versions, with more exposition and development, and in keeping with the ambitions that album cuts (even of popular numbers) were supposed to display in those days. Actually, "Listen to the Music" (written by Tom Johnston) offers subtle use of phasing and other studio tricks that make its seemingly earthy, laid-back approach some of the most complex and contrived of the period. Johnston's "Rockin' Down the Highway" shows the band working at a higher wattage and moving into Creedence Clearwater Revival territory, while "Mamaloi" was Patrick Simmons' laid-back Caribbean idyll, and the title tune (also by Simmons) is a hauntingly beautiful ballad. The band then switches gears into swamp rock for "Cotton Mouth" and takes a left turn into the Mississippi Delta for a version of Sonny Boy Williamson II's "Don't Start Me Talkin'" before shifting into a gospel mode with "Jesus Is Just Alright." Johnston's nearly seven-minute "Disciple" was the sort of soaring, bluesy hard rock workout that led to the group's comparison to the Allman Brothers Band, though their interlocking vocals were nearly as prominent as their crunching, surging double lead guitars and paired drummers. And it all still sounds astonishingly bracing decades later; it's still a keeper, and one of the most inviting and alluring albums of its era. Here in it's MFSL remaster



Goldy Rhox 161   (flac 215mb)

Goldy Rhox 161   (ogg 88mb)


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