Pure Prairie League - Can't Hold Back/Vince Gill

Finally - a Pure Prairie League record that has Vince Gill in and on it!  This is the back cover of their album called Can't Hold Back.  Vince is listed as Lead Guitar, Accoustic Guitar, Banjo, Dobro, and Vocals.  With Vince's unmistaable voice, it's not hard to tell what songs he's lead singer on.  And - who knew - it was recorded and mixed at Critera Studios, Miami, Florida.  Vince Gill is a fixture at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals, of which there have been three.  I was at the last one, last summer, just south of Chicago, where I got to watch and hear Gill lead a great mid-afternoon set.  Eric had Vince lead this set:  with Keb Mo, James Burton, Earl Klugh, Albert Lee - doing One More Last Chance.  Then wityh James Burton, Albert Lee, Keb Mo, Earl Klugh doing Mystery Train.  Followed by Vince with Keb Mo, Albert Lee, James Burton, Earl Klugh and Sheryl Crow doing (with host's permission) Lay Down Sally.

Wilton Felder...

Wilton Felder.  Pretty sure he is not related to Don.  But here is more on the guy:  Wilton Lewis Felder (1940 - ) plays both saxophone and bass.  He is best known for being a founding member of The Crusaders.  Felder, Wayne Henderson, Joe Sample, and Stix Hooper founded the group while in high school in Houston!  Felder has been in the group for over thirty years.  Felder also worked as studio or seesion musician o the west coast, playing mostly bass, for various soul and R&B musicians, and was one of the in-house bass players for Motown Records, when the record label opened up operations in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1970s.  He played on recordings by the Jackson 5 like "I Want You Back" and "The Love You Save," and for Marvin Gaye. He has also played bass for soft rock groups like America, and Seals and Crofts. Also of note was his contribution to the John Cale album, Paris 1919, and Billy Joel's Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade albums. He was one of three bass players on Randy Newman's Sail Away (album) (1972) and Joan Baez Diamonds & Rust. Felder also anchored albums from Joni Mitchell and Michael Franks.

Alice Cooper - School's Out

Alice Cooper - School's Out.  What a find!  What a record cover.  It says it all - this school desk replica ablum even opens like an old school desk!  A class of 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee - this is of course School's Out  - the fifth studio album by Alice Cooper, from 1972.  Inside the "school desk," are things like a homemade slingshot, a swtichblade knife, a few marbles, a handwritten note "to Alice," Crayolas, and other junk you had in your desk.  Alice Cooper is the guyand of course the name of the band was also called Alice Cooper.  The title track is a staple song for this time of the year.  Wiki explaings the original album cover (designed by Craig Braun) had the sleeve opening in the manner of an old school desk.  The vinyl record inside was wrapped in a pair of girl's panties.  The version I own is not that way.

Lovin Every Minute of It - Loverboy

Lovin Every Minute of It.  Loverboy.  The title track on this record, called Lovin' Every Minute of It, is a cornerstone of an Eighties Big Hair Bands 30-song medley by one of my favorite local bands.  They are called 7th Heaven, and though local - they play 300 shows a year and even opened for Bon Jovi last summer.   I forgot they are from Canada - Calgary to be exact.

Dizzy Gillespie - Have Trumpet, Will Excite!

Dizzy Gillespie.  On Verve Records.  Have Trumpet, Will Excite!"  From the back of the record jacket, we read that these guys played along on this record:  Junior Mance, piano.  Les Spann, flute and guitar.  Sam Jones on bass.  And Lex Humphries drumming.  John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie  (1917 –  1993) was an premiere jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer.  I am out of my league on jazz but he along with giants like Charlie Parker adn Miles Davis seem to be way up there.  He taught and influenced many other musicians, including my favorite trumpeter Mr. Jon Faddis who I've seen here in town leading the Chicago Jazz Ensemble.
Jon Faddis's name pops up on many records - since he is an in-demand session and studio master.  Faddis is on Eric Clapton's  Journeyman or August album.

Waylon & Jessi: Leather & Lace

Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter - Leather and Lace.  This is the back cover of the album, which I think has a better photo than the front cover.  Waylon is wondering and perhaps even waiting, and Jessi is being coy.   This is on the RCA Victor label - it is the the couple's first album together, though they had sung some individual duets together.  Based on the ablum title, I wanted to play the title track song - but it's NOT on the album.  What happened apparently - just my guess - is that Stevie Nicks was hired (maybe more like commissioned) by Waylon to write a single for this album which would have been the title cut, however the song does not appear on this record - anywhere.  Nicks, maybe (probably) thinking the song was too good to give up, she ended up recording it with Don Henley and it ended up on the her Bella Donna album, where it became a top ten hit in 1981.

Teen-Age Rock! - what the?

I was out garage-sailing yesterday in the drizzle, but my annual sping cook-out.  I paid a buck for this one.  Teen-age Rock!  With Ferlin Husky, Sonny James, Tommy Sands, and Gene Vincent.  Ferlin Husky recently passed away.  Ferlin Eugene Husky (1925 – March 17, 2011) was singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky honk, ballads, spoken recitations, and roackabilly.  In the Country Music Hall of Fame, it would be hard to tell of these four guys who is the most well known.  And Sonny James, also in the CMHOF, is still alive.  And Tommy Sands was once married to Nancy Sinatra.  Gene Vincent passed away in 1971.  Last but not least is Gene Vincent - pioneered formative styles of rock and roll and rockabilly.  He has a op tne hit in 1956 called Be-Bop-A-Lula.  He is a member of the Rock and Roll and Rockabilly Halls of Fame.