Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

Loretta's Van Lear Rose was initially intended as a musical experiment, blending the styles of country singer Loretta Lynn and producer Jack White (The White Stripes), who wrote one track, sings a duet with Lynn, and performs on the whole album as a musician. The title refers to Lynn's origins as the daughter of a miner, working the Van Lear coal mines. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and at number 24 on the Billboard 200, the most successful album of Lynn's 45-year career.
Nice Cover, where she got that dress???

Dewey Martin & Bruce Palmer - The Overlooked

1970
Dewey Martin & Medicine Ball

1971
Bruce Palmer
The Cycle is Complete

Both Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer were the overlooked members of the Buffalo Springfield.

Requested by user

Longbranch Pennywhistle - Longbranch Pennywhistle

The duo Longbranch Pennywhistle, who made one obscure self-titled album in 1969, are remembered primarily for featuring a pre-Eagles Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther (who of course went on to write much material for the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt). Frey had moved to Los Angeles from Detroit, where he had played with Bob Seger, and hooked up there with ex-Texan J.D. Souther. The two attracted attention in the burgeoning Southern California country-rock scene via gigs at the Troubadour club and were signed by Amos Records. Their lone LP was produced by Tom Thacker and featured a wealth of outstanding session musicians, such as guitar heroes James Burton and Ry Cooder, Buddy Emmons, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, Jim Gordon and Doug Kershaw.

J.D. Souther moved from Texas to California to follow the footsteps of the great B's: The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Beach Boys and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Longbranch Pennywhistle is a pleasant album of early country-rock. Pre-echoes of the sound of the Eagles and 1970s mellow Californian rock can be heard and some songs sound like the later days Byrds meet Poco. Souther would re-record one of the better songs, "Kite Woman," for his early-'70s solo debut. The album sold little and the duo broke up in mid-1970. However, Frey was soon playing in Linda Ronstadt's band The Stone Poneys and forming the nucleus of the Eagles, to whom Souther would frequently contribute as a songwriter. Souther and Frey would continue to collaborate, also with fellow Eagle Don Henley, occasionally on such Eagles classics as The Best of My Love, New Kid in Town, Victim of Love, The Sad Café, and Heartache Tonight.

Shiloh - Shiloh

Pre-Eagles band Shiloh gained popularity all across Texas. The band consisted of Don Henley on drums and vocals, bassist Michael Bowden (Richard's cousin), keyboardist Jim Ed Norman, Dobro/steel guitarist Al Perkins and, of course, lead guitarist Richard Bowden. Along the way, they came to know Kenny Rogers, who encouraged them to go to Los Angeles and gave them tips on how to search for a record deal. Rogers' advice paid off and Shiloh released their first album, Shiloh, in 1970. The record spawned one regional hit single, but went otherwise unnoticed, and that, together with a bad management deal, caused the band to break up.
As Al Perkins left and joined The Flying Burrito Brothers, Don Henley were asked if he wanted to go on the road with Glenn Frey as a band member to backup Linda Ronstadt. They also recruited the remaining members of Shiloh, Michael Bowden and Richard Bowden. Jim Ed Norman resurfaced as arranger and pianist on Eagles and Linda Ronstadt albums.

Cat Stevens - Majikat

Steven Demetre Georgiou, known by his stage name Cat Stevens, is a greece-british singer/songwriter. His albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were both certified as Triple Platinum in the US alone; his album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of its release. He has also earned two songwriting awards in consecutive years, for The First Cut Is the Deepest, which has been a hit single for four different artists. The great Cat Stevens converted to Islam at the height of his fame in December 1977 and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf the following year. In 2006, he returned to music, with his first album of new songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup . His newest album, Roadsinger, was released on 5 May 2009.

The New Breed - Wants You

Here we have another pre-Eagles-pre-Poco-thing. The story begins in Sacramento, CA in 1965 when Timothy (B.) Schmit, Ron Floegel, and Tom Phillips, and George Hullin went by the name, the New Breed.
In 1965, the New Breed cut a single, Green Eyed Woman b/w I'm in Love which was quite successful as a regional hit in Northern California. The band's music mirrored the progressive changes that were happening in the music world around this time, and their single Want Ad Reader was, essentially, a New Breed re-write of Paperback Writer. Around 1968, the band signed on with a new label, Equinox, under producer Terry Melcher, who had the group change their name to Glad. Unfortunately, Glad did not sell particularly well, and in 1969, Timothy B. Schmit was offered the position of bassist for Poco. He accepted it and went onto record some of the most underrated music ever with the band. He became the replacement for Randy Meisner, who, ironically, he would replace again in the Eagles in 1977. With Poco, Tim released 11 albums. The remaining members of New Breed/Glad continued making music as Redwing.

Glad - Feelin' Glad

Pre-Poco-pre-Eagles act Glad was the natural continuation of The New Breed (no members left). Their sole 1969's album is in the flower power/soft psychedelic style, complete with rich harmonies and heavy orchestration.
When the band folded Timothy Bruce Schmidt achieved international success first with Poco and then with the Eagles. Tom Phillips, George Hullin & Ron Floegel regrouped to form Redwing who released a string of albums throughout the 1970`s and beyond. Interestingly there's a track Pickin' Up The Pieces on this album(NOT the Richie Furay number). So Tim hadn't to learn any words on this song ;-)
This is a cleaned vinyl rip @192, so some cracks may still exist.

Albert Hammond - First two albums (Remaster)

1972
It Never Rains in Southern California
(What a claim!)

1973
The Free Electric Band

Albert Hammond was born in London, where his family had been evacuated from Gibraltar during WW II. His family returned to Gibraltar shortly after his birth, where he grew up. In 1966 Hammond co-founded the British vocal group, The Family Dogg together with Steve Rowland and Mike Hazlewood. They were scoring a UK hit with A Way of Life in 1969. Hammond later moved to the US, where he continued his career as a musician. Recently I've listened to his first two albums and I must say he were a poor guy. This is a good example how record companys burned artists to ash. Albert simply is no Cat Stevens, Roger McGuinn or Paul McCartney! If You Gotta Break Another Heart and The Peacemaker are simply Cat Stevens remakes, Brand New Day is a Byrds/Bob Dylan tune and The Air That I Breath is a Beatles styled number. It seems Columbia had no clue what to do with him. But I like them both. I'm really interested in your thoughts about that.