Thursday, August 16, 2007

Richie Furay - Part 4

Richie Furay - Part 4 - The Christian Awakening
In 1976 Furay formed The Richie Furay Band, with Jay Truax, John Mehler, and Tom Stipe, releasing one album 'I've Got a Reason', which reflected Richie's newfound beliefs. To support the release of this album Furay formed an alliance with David Geffen and Asylum records. Furay assured Geffen that his album would be Christian influenced but would not be an attempt to preach his newfound beliefs. Furay delivered on his promise and produced a good solid record. Unfortunately, the album along with subsequent releases failed to chart.




















Quality: 192 kb/s

After two tours during the late 70's, he hung up his rock & roll shoes in favor of a call to the ministry. But it seems that those who have hung onto the memory of the Buffalo Spingfield and the continual evolution of Poco have never forgotten Richie Furay and his innovative talent.Since the early 1980s, Richie Furay has been senior pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Broomfield, Colorado, a Christian church in the Denver area. He continues to perform as a solo artist, and sometimes with the old Poco friends.
Richie most recently toured as an opening act for America and Linda Ronstadt during the Summer of 2006. The 2006 release of his latest CD 'The Heartbeat of Love' returns Richie to his early country-rock roots with a contemporary flair. It is a showcase for his voice and songwriting talent.
Richie is on tour again, check his site for touring dates!!!

Albums:
1976 Richie Furay Band - I've Got A Reason
1978 Richie Furay - Dance A Little Light
1979 Richie Furay - I Still Have Dreams
1982 Richie Furay - Seasons Of Change
1997 Richie Furay - In My Father's House
2005 Richie Furay - I'm Sure

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Richie Furay - Part 3

The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band (1974)
After leaving Poco, Furay didn't wait long to rejoin the fray; he teamed up John-David Souther (songwriter and associate of the Eagles) and Chris Hillman (ex-Byrds) to form the country-rock group. Elektra figured it had another CSN on its hands: take one part Springfield, one part Byrds, one part pop songwriter, and stir. So they hyped the record heavily, and indeed it went gold and produced a Top 40 hit (Richie's lively "Fallin' In Love"). They're just following the same old L.A. country-influenced pop formula, with the usual watertight tenor harmonies, super-professional musicianship, and mournful romance lyrics. All of the material is solid; Furay's is as good as ever ("The Flight Of The Dove"), and Souther provides audible sincerity (the epic "Deep, Dark And Dreamless") matched with creative, Eagles-style tunefulness - his "Border Town" even features that band's trademarked, sardonic commentary on the Me Decade's party scene. The band is pretty high-powered: Jim Gordon (drums), Paul Harris (keyboards), Joe Lala (percussion on two tracks), and Al Perkins (pedal steel; his dobro plays excellently off of Hillman's mandolin on "Rise And Fall").
Quality: 320 kb/s ripped from CD.

Trouble in Paradise was the second and last from this band (1975).
Check out the cover of the album. J.D. Souther stares towards the ground, Richie Furay has his hands in his pockets, shrugging - and Chris has a no-nonsense stance, as if he was fed up with the proceedings. They were unhappy because they were forced to sound like CSN and the Eagles. If Souther, Hillman and Furay had had time to coalesce, to jell, write songs together, be a band they would have knocked the Eagles on their asses. Souther did not want to be in a group, did not want to be a team player. And S-H-F fell apart at the seams. Souther preferred to fly solo. Furay's two efforts are satisfying but nothing like "Falling in Love" or "Believe Me" (a song he originally recorded for Poco) off the first album.
Quality: Sorry don't know, because I got this from a friend. If you've a better one please submit.

Firefall is a band from the Byrds family tree. Two of it's founders are Michael Clarke and Rick Roberts. On this 1994 album Richie do background vocals on two tracks.

Quality: 320 kb/s ripped from CD.