Tuesday, December 18, 2012

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Longbranch Pennywhistle - Longbranch Pennywhistle
Cleaned Vinyl Rip @160
http://lix.in/-cb6a64

Anonymous said...

Thanks, have long wanted to hear this.