The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers - Blue Grass Favorites

The early-'60s bluegrass group the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers are most known for including Chris Hillman, who would join the Byrds a year after the band broke up. While they were together, they recorded an album of traditional bluegrass that marked the first recording not only by Hillman, but also by dobro player Larry Murray, who went on to the underrated Los Angeles country-rock group Hearts & Flowers.
The LP has solid and at times extremely rapidly picked bluegrass for musicians so young. Future founding Eagles member Bernie Leadon
was also in the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, although he doesn't appear on the album, joining after it was recorded. Establishing the basic details of the group's career has been a little confusing, but basically they formed in San Diego in 1961 or 1962, recruiting Hillman as the final member of the quintet during his last year of high school. In 1963 they recorded the LP
for budget Crown label live in about four hours, according to Hillman's recollection. To confuse matters, Crown also reissued the album at one point with the title Best of the Blue Grass Favorites, changing the group billing to the Kentucky Mountain Boys. The ten songs from the record also show up on an album called The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde, billed to a nonexistent artist named Ray Waters, on Custom, which like Crown was a subsidiary of Modern. Bernie Leadon played with the group for a while after the album was cut, replacing banjo player Kenny Wertz.
The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers actually did a reunion gig about 40 years after they broke up in April 2003 at the 30th Annual Roots Festival in San Diego, with Hillman, Murray, Wertz, Leadon, and guitarist Doug Jeffords.
If you a Byrds / Chris Hillman fan and you never heard this one it's highly recomended to get this album!
Quality: VBR

Firefall Part 2 - The Fire Begins To Fall

Firefall Part 2 - The fire begins to fall

Publicly, Firefall was burning hotter than ever in 1979. Behind the scenes, the band members were toast. They'd spent more than five solid years gigging, writing, recording, and touring and had finally made it. Yet their financial situation was in doubt. Relationships - both personal and business, inside and outside the band - were in shambles. One or two band members weren't on speaking terms. The six-headed democracy, with no one in charge, was splitting at the seams. Their bodies, minds, and souls suffered the effects of touring, self abuse, and neglect, typical of the era's booze'n'blow rock'n'roll lifestyle. In short, Firefall needed a break. Attempts to straighten out all the above and more added up to the lengthy delay in getting the next album out. With Joe Lala again as an unofficial member of the group, sessions for Undertow were spread out over several months and both coasts. There was much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth by the band, the producers and the record company. The resulting Undertow was finally launched. The single, Headed For A Fall, put the band back in the Top 40. But much momentum had been lost. The second single, Love That Got Away stalled on the charts during the summer of 1980. Financial troubles increased with a growing Atlantic debt and a lawsuit settlement with their first manager.
Quality : VBR

After the band completed a Japanese tour, Mark Andes and Michael Clarke left the band; Andes would later join the Wilson sisters for great success in Heart. Opting to carry on, Roberts, Bartley, Burnett and Muse quickly replaced them with Kenny Loggins' Grammy winning rhythm section: bassist George Hawkins and drummer Tris Imboden. Out at year's end, Clouds Across The Sun hit the charts in January 1981, followed a few weeks later by the single, Staying With It, which, unbeknownst nor agreed to by the band, ended up featuring a duet between Rick Roberts and Lisa Nemzo. After TV appearances George Hawkins left the band to join Mick Fleetwood's solo band. Boulder bassist Kim Stone was his replacement. Then, just after Firefall hit the road to support the new record, Larry Burnett bowed out of the band due to ill health. On the charts, Staying With It moved into the Top 40 but Clouds Across The Sun never caught on. Negotiations for a new record deal with RCA were in progress, but after a final concert on Maui Rick Roberts told his band mates he was history, and Firefall went into limbo. Later in '81, Atlantic Records, as an afterthought, released The Best Of Firefall before Christmas, then turned the page and dropped the band from it's roster.
Quality: 320 kb/s vinyl rip

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Fette Jahre

Lokomotive Kreuzberg's Fette Jahre is their 1975 album. It marks the last album which will posted, because we have the full discography now here availble. Cheers.
Quality: VBR

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - James Blond

Today I've found something for our Krautrock friends. Lokomotive Kreuzberg's 1973 album James Blond. It was the Lok's second album, released a year after Kollege Klatt.
For reference please look for the already posted albums in the archives.
Quality: VBR

Firefall Part 1 - Welcome To Byrdish Land

Quality: 320, 192, VBR

Michael Clarke - dr
Mark Andes - b, bv
Rick Roberts - v, g
Jock Bartley - g, v
David Muse - fl, sax, harm, p, clav, org, synth
Larry Burnett - v, g



In the early 1970s, Rick Roberts and Jock Bartley first met while Bartley was on tour with Gram Parsons as a member of his backing band The Fallen Angels. Both The Fallen Angels and Roberts were performing in New York City at the same venue on back to back nights. Roberts was impressed by Bartleys lead and slide guitar work. The duo soon began practicing and even performing together. Encouraged by their peers to form a band together, they contacted Mark Andes and Larry Burnett and coaxed them into joining their band, which they christened Firefall.
Although the band already had a vast repertoire of songs to play they still required a drummer. They auditioned several local musicians and played a few shows, they still required a drummer with more experience. Roberts chose his band mate from The Flying Burrito Brothers, Michael Clarke, who was most famous for his time in the Byrds. Clarke was literally hired over the phone.
The band then decided that they wanted to add a more exotic sound to their music, so they brought in Roberts' high school friend David Muse (who was later with Heart). Muse was a multi-instrumentalist who played
saxophone, flute, hamonica and keyboards. Jim Mason, who had worked with Poco in the past, was brought in as their producer. With their line-up complete, the band went into rehearsals in Boulder.
The resulting album, the self-titled Firefall became Atlantic Records quickest album to reach gold status. The group's first single Livin' Ain't Livin' reached the top 40.
The band's next single You Are The Woman, catapulted into the top 10. To add to their exposure, they began touring with Fleetwood Mac, who were at the beginning of their most successful days. Their next single, Cinderella, though played extensively on FM radio, did not fare well on AM radio due to its controversial lyrics being boycotted by feminist groups. This did not however, have a lasting affect on the band's sales.
The group then headed back to Criteria Studios to record their second album, which was to be titled Tropical Nights. After hearing the final mix, the band received a note from Atlantic CEO saying that the album needed to be reworked. The album was re-recorded and renamed Luna Sea. The album peaked at 27 on the charts and went gold less than two months after release. The single from the album Just Remember I Love You, featuring backing vocals by Poco's Timothy B. Schmit, reached the top 10.
In 1978, the band produced their third album Elan. It was a massive success, and it became their first album to reach platinum status. The singles Goodbye, I Love You and Sweet and Sour were released within a few months and continued the band's commercial hot streak.

Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Kollege Klatt

Kollege Klatt was Lokomotive (or Lok for short) Kreuzberg very first record. Lokomotive Kreuzberg were the most important political rock band to emerge from Berlin. Five left-wing ex-students formed the band at the beginning of 1972. They had theatrical live shows, where the music only served as a texture and background for their 'cabaret performances'. Kollege Klatt containes a full variety of musical styles.

Personnel:
Andreas Bauer(v/kb/vln), Karl-Heinz Scherfling(v), Volker Hiemann (v g), Franz Powalla(v/b), Uwe Holz (v/d/harm)
Quality: 192 kb/s vinyl rip

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

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.